Berentzen-Gruppe, the Germany-based distiller that wants to sell up to Sazerac, expects its profits be down substantially in the first nine months of 2026.
The company said today (19 October) it expects its “normalised” EBIT to have dropped more than three-quarters in the first nine months of the year.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
Berentzen, home to the namesake schnapps and Puschkin vodka, is expecting to post a near-10% drop in revenues.
“The weaker performance of key earnings figures in the first two quarter of the 2026 financial year, compared to the same period last year, has continued in the third quarter,” Berentzen said. “The main reason for this continues to be, in particular, lower sales volumes in the German market against the backdrop of continued consumer restraint.”
Berentzen has retained its forecasts for annual revenue, consolidated EBIT and consolidated EBITDA.
Last month, US spirits giant Sazerac launched a takeover offer for Berentzen worth €5.55 (then $6.37) a share. The bid has secured the backing of Berentzen’s executive and supervisory boards.
A statement announcing the offer said the bid was a 68% premium on Berentzen’s three-month average share price before the German group had confirmed takeover talks were happening on 16 September.
Berentzen’s preliminary numbers for the first nine months of the year set out an expectation for normalised consolidated operating EBIT of €1.3m, down from €5.6m 12 months earlier.
The company is also expecting to book normalised consolidated EBITDA of €7.9m, against €12m in the first nine months of 2025.
The Tres Países rum owner is expecting to post 9.9% fall in nine-month revenues to €107.6m.
Berentzen is forecasting annual revenues to land in the range of €151-156m, consolidated operating EBIT of €3.5-5m and consolidated EBITDA of € 12.4-13.9m.
The company also owns spirits brands including Norden Sea Salt gin and Strothmann liqueurs. It also has private-label contracts that, in 2025, accounted for a clear majority of its spirits sales.
Outside spirits, Berentzen’s soft-drinks business houses brands like Mio Mio and Emsland Quelle. The company’s non-alcoholic drinks business accounted for 20% of sales in 2025, a year in which the division’s sales fell due, it said, to the sale of a production site.
