By Andy Young
Campari has said that good performances by its five global brands have helped its sales increase by three per cent, organically, in the past year.
The company, which produces Campari, Skyy Vodka, Aperol, Wild Turkey and the Appleton Estate rums, said global full year sales reached €1.66 billion (AU$2.49bn), and its group net profit was up 36.1 per cent in 2015.
CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said: “We delivered very positive results across all key performance indicators in 2015. In particular, results were sustained by very favourable organic growth, accelerating in the last part of the year, notwithstanding the increased weakness in some emerging markets (Russia and Nigeria), due to a difficult macroeconomic environment."
He added: "“We achieved the results thanks to the consistent execution of our growth strategy which drove a continuous improvement of sales mix by brand and market, in line with the Group’s objectives.
“In particular, high margin global priority brands outperformed the Group’s overall organic growth and accelerated in the fourth quarter, leading to operating margin improvement at Group level.”
Campari also saw its group debts fall to €825.8m ($1.24bn), a drop of over €150m ($225.8m). But Kunze-Concewitz added that while he expects sales to continue improving, the group is likely to suffer as a result of foreign exchange fluctuations.
He added: "Looking forward, with respect to the macroeconomic environment, we expect the volatility in some emerging markets and the recent devaluation of Group’s key foreign currencies to continue during 2016. Simultaneously, we are confident to achieve a positive and profitable development of the business, driven by the growth of high-margin global priority brands (particularly the aperitifs, the American whiskies and the Jamaican rums), and by the positive performance of strategic markets for the Group.
"In particular, we expect to continue to positively exploit the growth potential of our brands and markets thanks to consistent investments in brand building, the positive contribution from innovations as well as a continued leverage of the Group’s strengthened distribution platform and business infrastructure."
For the Australian market, the group said: "Organic performance in Australia (4.9 per cent of total Group sales and 69.5 per cent of the region) was positive by +6.8 per cent, confirming the outperformance of Group’s portfolio in key categories in terms of sell-out trends, led by Wild Turkey (both core and American Honey), Wild Turkey ready-to-drink, Aperol, Campari and Skyy."
The Australian range Wild Turkey ready-to-drink increased by +4.7 per cent organically.