Liquor company Gruppo Campari has reported sales growth of 5.2% in 2012 led by strong growth in the US, rest of the world and duty-free. Group net profit was down by 1.6% owing to acquisition-related activity to €156.7m ($203.7m)
Sales for the year totalled $1.34bn ($1.74bn), up by 5.3% or organic growth of 2.1%. Rest of the world and duty-free revenues were up by 19.8%, while the Americas saw sales growth of 8.8% last year. In terms of organic growth the positions were reversed, with Americas growing 11.7% and rest of the world and duty-free up by 7%.
CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said: “2012 results were overall satisfactory considering the very difficult market context and the continued steady progress in improving our brand and market mix. Regarding the existing business in 2012, adverse market conditions in the Group’s traditional markets, particularly Italy, Brazil, Germany, affected our aperitifs and still wine portfolio but were compensated by strong growth in newly established sales platforms in Australia, Argentina and Russia in combination with the continued strong performance of the overall US business. Moreover, we benefitted from healthy cash flow generation thanks to good working capital management.”
He added: “Looking forward, we expect 2013 to be another challenging year due to heightened macro-economic difficulties in Eurozone markets. However, continued positive momentum in the US and the Pacific, coupled with improvements in Latin America, stronger growth in Eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, as well as a strong innovation pipeline and heightened brand building in our core categories will help compensate European weakness. Moreover, we expect to further strengthen our brand portfolio and route to market in the Americas and the Pacific thanks to our transformational acquisition of Lascelles DeMercado. Net in net, looking forward we are well equipped to tackle the awaiting challenges.”
