PARIS (Reuters) – French spirits group Remy Cointreau said it looked at its 2022-2023 fiscal year with confidence, predicting a strong start to business in the first quarter despite a very high comparison base and COVID-related restrictions in the key Chinese market.
For its 2021/2022 full fiscal year, which ended on March 31, the maker of Remy Martin cognac and Cointreau liquor kept a forecast for “very strong” organic growth in operating profit as it reported sales growth of 27.3%, in line with expectations.
Group sales for the 12 months to March 31 came at 1.313 billion euros ($1.38 billion), marking an organic rise of 27.3%, that was in line with a company-compiled consensus for 27.2% growth, thanks to strong demand for premium cognac in China, the United States and Europe.
However, in the fourth quarter cognac organic sales fell 16.7%, compared with expectations of a 15.9% decline.
This reflected a previously-flagged voluntary management by the group of its strategic inventory ahead of April 1 price increases, as well as the impact COVID-related lockdown measures in China, said Remy. ($1 = 0.9505 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
