CHIVAS Brothers has highlighted the ongoing strong global demand for Scotch whisky as it reported a 17% rise in annual sales.
The distilling giant, which makes Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, and The Glenlivet, said this morning that it had turned in a “robust” performance in Asia and “stellar growth” in North America in its most recent financial year.
The results came as Chivas announced plans to invest more than £60 million to accelerate efforts to reduce energy and carbon use over the next three years. It aims to become carbon neutral in its distilling operations by the end of 2026.
The company recently said it would share the expertise and learnings from a trial of pioneering heat recovery technology at its Glentauchers Distillery in Speyside with the wider industry. The trial achieved a 53% cut in carbon emissions at the site.
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Chivas, which is owned by Paris-based Pernod Ricard, said its flagship Chivas Regal brand had achieved growth of 25% to 5.1 million nine-litre cases during its last financial year, amid an “impressive performance” in markets such as India and Japan.
Ballantine’s grew by 13% to 8.8m 9-litre cases, The Glenlivet by 9% to 1.6m 9-litre cases, Royal Salute by 32% to 0.3m 9-l cases. Aberlour grew by 11% in the “highly competitive malts category”.
Chivas noted that its performance had been “particularly robust” in Asia, where sales grew by 21%. That came amid growth of 27% in India, 19% in South Korea, 28% in Japan, and 7% in Greater China, where the company said it was driving demand among new Scotch audiences.
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Growth of 8% was achieved in the “highly saturated market” of North America; sales in the US and Canada increased by 8% and 7% respectively.
Jean-Etienne Gourgues, chairman and chief executive of Chivas Brothers, said: “The historic highs we’re seeing across our strategic brands signal the success of our premiumisation strategy which has enabled Chivas Brothers to outperform the market.
"Our highest growth of the last decade reinforces our position to shape the future of sustainable Scotch while continuing to meet demand. We have fast-tracked a number of sustainability initiatives to meet our own ambitious targets and remain committed to supporting the industry in ushering in this new era —as we demonstrated earlier this year by making our heat recovery findings open source.”
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Separately, Pernod Ricard today reported organic net sales growth of 10% to €12.1 billion for the year, which helped lift profit from recurring operations increase by 11% to €3.35bn.
The rise in sales and profits came amid “broad-based growth across all regions”, with sales in Asia-Rest of the World climbing by 17% to €5.2bn, Europe by 8% to €3.46bn, and the Americas by 2% to €3.48bn.
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