US Jameson sales drive Pernod’s Q1 growth
Pernod Ricard has announced “good” first quarter sales for 2016/17, driven by “continued strong momentum” for Irish whiskey brand Jameson in the US.
In the US, Jameson sales showed “continued strong momentum”The world’s second-largest spirits producer reported organic sales growth of 4%, with Q1 sales totalling €2,248 million (US$2.5m) – “consistent” with Pernod’s full-year guidance, according to chairman and CEO, Alexandre Ricard.
The Paris-based firm celebrated a 3% increase for its international brands, with”good growth” on Ballantine’s and “improvement” on Absolut and Martell.
Sales of its domestic brands rose by 5%, attributed to the success of Indian whiskies and Seagram’s Gin in Europe.
The group described a “dynamic” Q1 in the Americas, with sales climbing 8%, driven by “continued strength in the US”, and “solid growth” in Europe with an uptake of 6%, which the firm says was “partly favoured by technical impacts” – shipments brought forward from July to June 2015, ahead of back-office mutualisation on 1 July 2015.
Despite “difficulties” for its Imperial Scotch brand in Korea, sales stability across Asia and Rest of World is “improving”, according to Pernod; however this progress is countered by Africa and the Middle East, which is “getting tougher”.
Ricard said: “We have had a good start to the financial year, consistent with our full year guidance. Therefore, we confirm our FY17 guidance of organic growth in Profit from Recurring Operations of between 2% and 4%.
“We will continue to implement our long-term growth strategy, focusing investments behind our priority brands, markets and innovations and remaining disciplined on pricing and costs.”
