By James Atkinson
Gruppo Campari has identified the Australian market as a standout performer in its results for the nine months ending September 30.
Campari said sales performed strongly in all key markets globally. "In particular, Australia continued to show strong growth across the entire portfolio, showing continuing outperformance of the local market."
The company said the core Wild Turkey whiskey brand grew by nine per cent in the period thanks to positive performance across all three primary markets of the U.S., Australia and Japan.
Wild Turkey ready-to-drink grew by 25.7 per cent, driven by the core market of Australia. American Honey grew by 43.7 per cent, driven by U.S. and Australia.
Overall, Gruppo Campari booked EBITDA pre one-offs of €238.4 million (+0.9 per cent organic growth) on the back of €931.6 million sales (+2.2 per cent organic growth).
CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said the company's results were impacted by a sudden change in September of consumption and trading conditions in Italy, poor trading in the high seasonal summer period in Germany and a less favourable macro-economic environment in other Western European markets.
"On the positive side, we saw improving trends in Brazil, and achieved continued positive momentum in North America, thanks to heightened focus on brand building activities, and in Asia Pacific, where we are consistently outperforming the local market," he said.