Rémy Cointreau keeps the course in China despite fears

Rémy Cointreau accelerated the pace in the third quarter of its staggered year thanks to sales of cognac still very robust in China despite fears related to the slowdown in growth in the country.
Rémy Martin cognac, the main profit center of the group, saw its organic growth still take off 15.6% between October and December 2018, after an increase of 12.2% over the previous three months, well above 13, 3% anticipated by analysts.

With a Chinese new year earlier than 2018, deliveries were anticipated and had a favorable impact of about two points on the quarterly growth of cognac, the group said Tuesday in a statement.

While the slowdown in the Chinese economy, the decline of the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Sino-US trade war are raising fears of a lower appetite of the Chinese upper middle classes for luxury goods, Rémy Cointreau has maintained the pace and is wanted reassuring.

Its cognac sales are up 20% in the country and its CFO, Luca Marotta, said he was “confident in the group’s ability to maintain this trend”.

Asked questions about the evolution of demand from Chinese customers, he said he was very “zen” and indicated that the trend of sales of distributors to end customers – a key indicator of market developments – remained unchanged, ” up sharply to double digits “.

He also assured that the group was better armed than in 2013 – the date of the collapse of sales in China related to anti-corruption measures in Beijing – to face a possible crisis, thanks in particular to a better geographical balance, the United States. United having become the first market of the group.