French spirits-maker Pernod Ricard saw a 9 per cent rise in India topline for FY21 (July 2020 – June 2021). This incidentally was the second highest growth in topline here.

Good recoveries during the first nine months (July – March) slowed down in the April to June period because of the second wave of Covid.

“….India, which grew 9 per cent, is the second highest topline ever here. Not record sales yet, hopefully by the end of this year it will be,” Alexandre Ricard, Chairman and CEO, Pernod Ricard SA, said during the annual analyst concall.

Top brass of the world’s second largest alco-beverage company, during the call, mentioned the Indian market as “resilient” and the “underlying consumer driven trends” being “clearly there”. The company expects “some recovery in India in fiscal 2022”; even if there might be “ some volatility” linked to the pandemic.

For Pernod Ricard, “strategic local brands” grew by 7 per cent driven by recovery of Seagram’s whiskey brands in India (and other ones such as Kahlua, Passport, Ramazzotti, particularly in Germany). Strategic international brands that include Jameson, Ballantines and Glenlivet, grew in high double-digits.

Mass to mass-premium categories brands sold here (by Pernod Ricard) include ‘Seagram’s Royal Stag’, ‘Seagram’s Blender’s Pride’, ‘Seagram’s Imperial Blue’, ‘Seagram’s 100 Pipers’, among others. “A positive brand mix” with focus on Blender’s Pride and Royal Stag, saw numbers improve, the company said in its investor presentation.

Premium brands

Other premium and super-premium brands include ‘Jacob’s Creek’ (wines), ‘Beefeater’ in gin, along with ‘Chivas Regal’ (scotch), ‘Royal Salute’ (whiskey); ‘Monkey 47’ (gin) in the super premium segment.

The owners of Absolut vodka and Martell cognac have not given any guidance for the fiscal. However, Ricard added, India is expected to grow in low double digits as a part of its 4-7 per cent topline growth in the medium term framework.

“We do believe that the 4-7 per cent topline growth framework is a medium term framework driven by, as I mentioned earlier, mid-single-digit growth in the US, high-single-digit growth in China, low double-digit growth in India, and a global Travel Retail channel, which is not disrupted,” he said.

Growth outlook

According to him, sales in Asia and the rest of the world were up 11 per cent YoY, with strong growth “driven principally but not limited to China”. Other markets in the region that witnessed strong growth include South Korea and Turkey.

The company is also expecting the strong momentum in sales to continue this year after a rebound in demand in China, and the US. In FY21, the US saw a 16 per cent organic growth and reported $2 billion of net sales while China, which saw 44 per cent growth, reporting “above the billion euro of net sales” ($1.18 billion).

According to Ricard, the company would look to tap into new growth markets as Covid accelerates a “new world order framework” in the geopolitical context and the emergence of middle and affluent classes who now account for 50 per cent of the global population at 3.8 billion. The numbers are expected to swell to 5.6 billion people by 2030.

“Thus the importance of our leadership presence in China, in India and our investment strategy as well, beyond China and India and Southeast Asia, in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America and this is important,” he said.

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