Rémy Cointreau has joined spirits peers Pernod Ricard and Diageo in abandoning medium-term sales targets amid ongoing tariff uncertainty and a slowdown in US spirits sales.
The Rémy Martin and Cointreau brand owner reported a smaller than expected 30.5% dip in annual operating profits on Wednesday (4 June).
However, it scrapped its 2030 sales growth ambitions, citing “the continued lack of macroeconomic visibility, the geopolitical uncertainties surrounding US-China tariff policies, and the absence to date of a recovery in the US”.
Newly appointed CEO Franck Marilly would instead look to “establish his own strategic roadmap”, it added.
Sales at Rémy Cointreau dipped by 18% last year. The French spirits group derives some 70% of global sales from cognac, mostly in the US and China, but drinkers in both countries are turning away from the spirit and their governments have introduced tariffs on imports.
Rémy Cointreau said it expected sales to return to mid-single-digit growth on an organic basis in 2025-26, “driven primarily by a strong technical rebound in sales to the United States starting in the first quarter”.
An expected worst case scenario would see tariffs result in a €100m hit to operating profits in the next year, it said. However, some 35% of this could be mitigated, it added.
In this scenario, the group said operating profits were likely to decline in the mid-to-high teens next year.
“The removal of the medium-term 2030 targets should not come as a surprise,” said Jeffries analyst Ed Mundy. “The full extent of the tariff hit has not been incorporated into sellside estimates.”
Shares in Rémy Cointreau climbed nearly 4% in morning trading, but remain down some 43% year on year.
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