Campari delivers “poor” Q1 performance

Italian drinks group Campari has reported a poor performance in its 2013 first quarter, with profits down 25%.

The integration of Appleton Estate owner Lascelles deMercado is “progressing”, Campari says

The group claims the poor results were due to the “one-off impact of destocking in Italy,” as a result of the introduction of a binding time limit to the payment terms generated by ‘article 62’. In turn, Campari claims the destocking significantly deteriorated the sales mix and further aggravated the local consumption trends.

Sales for the period came in at €315.2m, 12.9% higher than least year, driven by strong results in Eastern Europe and the Americas, particularly the US and Latin America, which offset continued strife in Germany and a slowdown in Australia.

Bob Kunze-Concewitz, CEO of Campari, said: “Looking forward the outlook for the current year remains unchanged. In particular, we expect the evolution in consumption trends and the potential persistence of poor weather conditions in Italy and in Eurozone markets to be the key challenges to the Group’s ability to recover the Q1 ‘one-off’ destocking impact over the next quarters.”

He added that the integration of the Lascelles deMercado business, which it purchased for US$414.8m in September last year, is “progressing in line with plan”.