FDBusiness.com

Italian drinks business Gruppo Campari has reported a 1.8% drop in first half sales to €686.1 million with organic sales up 3.8%. Group pre-tax profit slipped 0.9% to €91.3 million and net profit was down 0.5% to €57.3 million.

Bob Kunze-Concewitz, chief executive of Gruppo Campari, comments: “On the back of a weak first quarter impacted by Easter timing, the expected robust recovery in organic sales in most key brand market combinations led to positive full first half 2014 results. In particular, growth was driven by our aperitifs business, with Campari and Aperol as well as the key local single serve brands performing strongly in the Italian market. Whilst the Cinzano and Appleton franchises recovered ground, SKYY and Wild Turkey shipments were soft due to temporary phasing issues in the US market which overshadowed the underlying positive depletion trends.”

The Italian market performed strongly in the first half, as did Latin America, driven by Brazil and Argentina. A strong recovery in the second quarter was also achieved in Russia, Jamaica and Australia which helped partly offset weak shipments in other key markets, which were also partially driven by phasing issues caused by production and route to market start-ups.

He adds: “We are confident that the overall positive organic sales trend will consolidate in the second half year thanks to the normalisation of shipment trends across key markets. Looking forward, we expect to continue improving the momentum of our key brand market combinations thanks to our strengthened route to market as well as impactful marketing initiatives, including restylings, innovation and premiumisation.”