The German drinks company, Henkell & Soehnlein, posted turnover of €623.9m (US$739.1m) for 2002, down 0.7% from 2001. The company also said that its total output of alcoholic drinks fell by 2.6% to 261.9m bottles.
The company attributed the drop in sales to a rise in sparkling wine prices. Sparkling wine sales fell by 3.5% while still wine sales were down 6.4%. H&S has around a 20% market share of the German sparkling wine sector.
