DRINKS giant Pernod Ricard revealed that soaring sales of whiskies, including Chivas Regal and Glenlivet, helped it to its strongest growth since the 2008 financial crisis, as it lined up another member of its founding family to take leadership of the business.
Rising demand in Asia helped to lift operating profit by a better-than-expected 9% to €2.1 billion (£1.7bn) for the year to June 30.
Sales at the world's second biggest spirits company were up 8% to €8.2bn.
As at arch-rival Diageo, owner of Johnnie Walker, which published its financial results a week ago, whisky led the way in sales growth. Pernod's top-end whisky Royal Salute, which retails for between £100 and £1600 a bottle, saw sales expand 20% as it sold more than 200,000 nine-litre cases for the first time.
Meanwhile, Glenlivet's sales grew 15% to surpass the 800,000 case mark. Its core whisky brand Chivas Regal saw sales rise 7% to 4.9 million cases.
On top of that, Pernod succeeded in increasing prices for its top brands, with Royal Salute growing 23% in value terms; Glenlivet, the world's second largest single malt whisky brand, 19%; and Chivas 11%.
The only other Pernod brand to match this performance was its brandy Martell, which grew 25% in value terms and 10% by volume. The one leading whisky brand to falter was Ballantine's, which saw sales stagnate in value terms as volumes fell. It was hit by the economic downturn in Spain and duty increases in France. These are its two biggest markets.
Christian Porta, chairman and chief executive of Pernod's whisky business Chivas Brothers, said: "Over the past 10 years, backed by the strong Pernod Ricard distribution network and a strategy of innovation, Chivas Regal has reaffirmed its iconic status and continues to grow in many emerging Scotch whisky markets."
The company said Chivas Regal did well in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, and saw sales in travel retail exceed one million cases for the first time. Royal Salute benefited from marketing activity around the Diamond Jubilee. Meanwhile, Glenlivet saw strong growth in Asia, helped by a marketing push.
Pernod, whose other brands include Jameson Irish whiskey and Absolut Vodka, saw double-digit growth in Asia. But sales in Europe were hindered by poor performance in Spain, Italy and Greece, as well as the UK, where sales fell 4%.
Alexandre Ricard, managing director of the group's distribution network, has been named deputy chief executive and chief operating officer. It is intended that in January 2015 he will replace chief executive Pierre Pringuet, who is due to retire, and his aunt Daniele Ricard, who became chairman on the sudden death of her brother Patrick Ricard, son of the founder.
Mr Pinguet said: "Throughout the 2011/12 financial year, the group recognised its best growth rates since the 2008 crisis, be it for the top or bottom line."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article