Rémy Cointreau has outlined plans to kick-start its sales and profits and made changes to the company’s management.
The France-based spirits major, which has seen sales and profits come under pressure in recent quarters, today (8 April) announced a three-year “transformation plan”.
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The initiative, dubbed RC Forward, will be led by CEO Franck Marilly, who took the helm last June.
Marilly said: “RC Forward aims to give us the means to generate our own value creation momentum and thus become less dependent on macroeconomic cycles.
“It also seeks to strengthen the entrepreneurial and conquering midst of our teams, building on the group’s culture while instilling greater discipline, rigor and performance focus. Our ambition is clear: to sustainably improve profitability in order to generate additional resources to reinvest in growth.”
In addition to the new growth plan, the group also announced changes to the structure of its leadership team to help it “gain efficiency and agility”.
As part of the new strategy, Rémy will focus on five “strategic levers”.
The company will review its distribution network “to expand reach and capture unapped growth opportunities”.
Secondly, the Cointreau brand owner is aiming to implement “enhanced revenue growth management”.
Elsewhere, Rémy said it would look to “maximise the impact of its A&P investments” and “optimise” procurement.
The fifth focus is to “simplify to accelerate execution”, the group said. Not much detail was provided on how Rémy plans to “simplify” but the business indicated it would look to “evolve the organisation, clarify responsibilities, streamline decision-making processes” and bolster “the performance culture”.
Rémy will share how it is progressing on the new strategy when it releases its full-year results on 4 June.
On that date, the Rémy Martin Cognac owner also plans to share “the level of ambition in terms of value creation over a three-year horizon”, it added.
As part of the changes, the group has set up what it calls a “steering committee” within its broader executive team. The new committee will report directly to Marilly.
Célia d’Everlange, Rémy’s head of financial communications, has been named chief transformation officer, giving her a seat on the executive committee for the duration of the strategy.
Luca Marotta, previously the group’s CFO, has been appointed deputy CEO. He continues to oversee finance, IT and legal functions in this new role.
Ian McLernon, previously the chief executive for Rémy’s operations in EMEA, north and south Asia-Pacific, plus its travel-retail business, has been appointed chief markets officer. He will oversee all regions, including a new emerging markets unit.
The others on the steering committee are Mélanie Bulourde, who will now hold the positions of group chief operations and CSR officer, and Clarisse Petit, who is now group chief human resources officer.
A group chief brands officer is to be named at a later stage; in the interim, Marilly will assume responsibility for this role, the group said.
The new executive committee will include the five steering committee members, plus eight other executives, including Rémy Martin general manager Amaury Vinclet, and Elisabeth Tona, the CEO of the company’s Liqueurs & Spirits division.
In January, Rémy Cointreau booked a 2.8% increase in organic sales in its fiscal third quarter, which ran to the end of December.
Organic sales reached €261.1m ($311.2m) on a constant-currency basis, supported by an improved performance across its main business lines.
Sales dropped 3.3% to €245.8m on a reported basis, hit by exchange-rate fluctuations.
Over the first nine months of its financial year, the company recorded sales of €735.4m, down 6.6% on the previous year.
On a constant-currency basis, sales were €772.4m, translating into an organic decline of 1.9%.
For its full financial year, Rémy Cointreau expects organic sales to reach a range of flat year-on-year to low-single-digit growth.
