Brown-Forman Q4 & fiscal-2020 – preview

Tomorrow (9 June), Brown-Forman will report its results from both the final quarter and the 12 months of the group’s fiscal-2020. While sales in the first quarter came in flat, a top-line lift of 6% in Q2 resulted in half-year sales coming in 3% up on the corresponding period a year earlier. March, meanwhile, saw Brown-Forman maintain its 3% growth rate for the first nine months. Here’s a look at the news that will likely shape the group’s performance in Q4, the three months to the end of April.

• Just before the start of the group’s final quarter, Brown-Forman looked to reignite sales of the Tennessee Fire variant of flagship whiskey brand Jack Daniel’s. A packaging revamp was introduced to bring the variant into line with its sibling extensions while also highlighting Fire’s cinnamon flavour. The SKU had registered flat growth in both fiscals 2018 and 2019
• The quarter kicked off proper with the Super Bowl on 2 February. While Anheuser-Busch InBev, The Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo duked it out for biggest spender, Brown-Forman was much more responsible – literally – with its marketing spend around the game
• In the UK, the company has been working through its split from long-term partner Bacardi. The closure of the distribution and sales tie-up in the country actually took effect at the start of May, but the run-up to the big day saw Brown-Forman set up its own route-to-market. Speaking to analysts in March, group CFO Jane Morreau also flagged a change to promotional strategy in the UK, along with a soft cash-and-carry channel, for pulling UK sales down 7% in the first nine months of fiscal-2020. The UK is Brown-Forman’s biggest market outside of the US
• Mid-March saw the coronavirus hit Brown-Forman’s markets. Along with its peers, the company introduced home-working as it closed offices. A spokesperson confirmed to just-drinks at the time that no cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed among its employees
• To help the US on-premise channel weather the impacts of the coronavirus, Brown-Forman teamed with many of its rival drinks companies to donate funds to the US Bartenders Guild Foundation. The money, amounting to around US$8.4m, was pledged through the Distilled Spirits Council of the US
• COVID-19 also shaped an advert for Jack Daniel’s in the US, with Cyndi Lauper’s 80’s hit True Colours getting an airing in the socially-distanced spot
• April was quiet for the company, although its arrangement with Drinkworks resulted in the unveiling of the first Jack Daniel’s cocktail pods for the at-home drinks platform. At 9.7% abv, Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey Lynchburg Lemonade hit the US last month

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