STRONG demand from China helped lift cognac sales at French spirits company Remy Cointreau.
The group, owner of Islay single malts Bruichladdich, Port Charlotte and Octomore, said that sales of €241.5 million in the first quarter of 2018/19 – representing like-for-like growth of 5.9 per cent from last year – were above analysts' expectations for 5.3% growth.
Remy Cointreau had a strong start to the year with the House of Rémy Martin continuing its upward trajectory underpinned by “highly favourable” trends in Greater China and the travel retail market, plus sustained growth in Singapore, Australia and Japan.
Its liqueurs and spirits division renewed its growth (+2.8%) in the first quarter, driven by the Houses of Cointreau and Metaxa, as well as its single malt whiskies and The Botanist gin, also made in Islay. Partner brands continued their decline in line with the group’s strategy to refocus on its own brands.
“The Botanist achieved exceptional growth across all geographical areas,” the company said, adding that the “vitality of the whisky business unit primarily reflects an outstanding performance of the Scottish single malts”.
It said that the “progressive Hebridean distillers” had recently unveiled its new campaign #WeAreIslay which will be launched in the coming months along with new packaging for Port Charlotte.
Other brands in the company’s portfolio include Greek spirit Metaxa and Mount Gay rum.
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