For Pernod Ricard, 2023 was a year of progress and celebration, according to Kevin Mapson, Commercial Managing Director of Pernod Ricard Pacific.
A highlight was Jacob’s Creek’s sponsorship of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which saw impressive gains for the brand.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup provided a jump off point for Jacob’s Creek to shine, with a clear brand role of bringing together friends and family to enjoy ‘A Drop Worth Sharing’. In total, over 12.4 million people were reached through our Jacob’s Creek media campaign, 147,000 glasses were consumed in stadiums, and we saw a 17 per cent uplift in retail sales value for the core SKUs featured, ultimately leaving Jacob’s Creek with its highest brand consideration in three years,” Mapson said.
Sparkling wine, such as the Mumm Terroirs collection, has also driven growth for the business.
“Sparkling wine has seen extraordinary growth over the past 10 years, growing to be twice the size of Champagne.
“Mumm Terroirs is now positioned as the number one premium sparkling brand in the $30+ segment and the launch of Mumm Central Otago in 2023 allowed us to unlock a higher value price segment and key gifting occasion,” Mapson said.
Another notable success has been the launch of Altos RTD Margarita, following the 2022 introduction of Olmeca Altos Tequila.
“Following a hugely successful pilot at the FIFA Women’s World Cup with a stadium-exclusive 250ml can, the Olmeca Altos RTD is now the number one growth driver to the Tequila RTD segment (FYTD) in Australia,” Mapson said.
Pernod Ricard, like many businesses, expects inflation to pose a significant challenge in 2024. In particular, the business is conscious of the flow-on effects to its customers.
“Getting the balance between meeting current economic pressure while investing in the growth drivers of tomorrow is a constant balancing act that will ultimately provide clear market opportunities.
“While we as suppliers face challenges and external pressures such as inflation, it’s important that we also recognise the same is true for our customers. Our role is to ensure we provide value to their businesses that is aligned to their strategies without adding any additional unwarranted complexity.”
Industry recognition
Pernod Ricard was named Best Off-Premise Supplier at the Australian Liquor Industry Awards (ALIA) and Overall Supplier of the Year at the Retail Drinks Awards, with many more awards in between. Mapson attributes these achievements to Pernod Ricard’s focus on employee development.
“Last year we launched a new capability development program for our commercial teams, which focuses on developing our people for high performance by embedding new skills and applying a consistent way of building commercial capability and driving a performance culture.
“Creating a successful learning culture requires more than just a fancy development program, though. There must also be the opportunity for teams to receive coaching in how to apply these theoretical learnings practically in the workplace,” he said.
This article originally appeared in the 2024 Leaders Forum issue of National Liquor News.