Pernod Ricard will report results for its fiscal second quarter and first half tomorrow (17 February). Here, just-drinks brings you highlights of the company’s news in the three months to the end of December.
- Here in the UK, tennis took an unseasonal tilt at the headlines in October, when Pernod announced that its Jacob’s Creek wine brand will replace Diageo’s Blossom Hill as the official wine of the Wimbledon tennis tournament. Pernod’s global wine brand owner, Premium Wine Brands, signed a five-year agreement with The All England Lawn Tennis Club for the Australian wine brand to become the Official Wine of Wimbledon.
- Pernod’s divestment programme, following its purchase of Absolut Vodka’s parent company, Vin & Sprit, in 2008, continued apace in October, when it sold Lindauer and several other unnamed New Zealand wine brands to a consortium including Lion Nathan for NZD88m (US$66m). The company is still present in the country’s wine industry through the Brancott Estate brand, formerly known as Montana.
- The bullishness of company CEO, Pierre Pringuet, back in October, will be put to the test tomorrow. Four months ago, Pringuet said that he expects Pernod to increase profits from recurring operations by “close to 6%” for the year to the end of June 2011, compared to the previous year. His comments were leapt on by analysts, who took them to symbolise the strength of the spirits industry to weather the recent economic downturn.
- On the advertising and promotions front, Pernod’s Chivas Brothers unit, which handles Scotch whisky and premium gin, rolled out its ‘The Age Matters’ campaign for Scotch further across travel retail in November. The push, which was launched back in June, rolled out to Seoul Incheon, Tokyo Narita, Tel Aviv, Osaka Kansai and Sydney airports. Brazil and Los Angeles were lined up to be next in line, followed by New York’s JFK, London, Madrid, Frankfurt, Barcelona and Copenhagen.
- Finally, in December, confirmation that Fortune Brands will spin off two of its divisions, leaving it to focus on Beam Global Spirits & Wine, started M&A theorists’ tongues wagging. While Pernod’s name was mentioned by many, the general consensus appears to be that the French company would only come into play if it was given more time before any auction process kicked off.