French spirits giant Rémy Cointreau has unveiled a five-point transformation plan to return to growth under new CEO Franck Marilly.
Marilly said the three-year project would give the Cointreau supplier “the means to generate our own value creation momentum and thus become less dependent on macroeconomic cycles”.
The plan, dubbed RC Forward Plan, will seek to strengthen Rémy’s distribution network and “refine route-to-market strategies in order to expand reach and capture untapped growth”, while also looking to create value by refining the group’s approach to “product, pricing, formats and promotions”.
A&P investments will also be reviewed with a view to improving resource allocation and focusing investment on creating maximum “desirability and value”.
Meanwhile, procurement will be optimised with a more “global approach to direct and indirect spend” being adopted.
Finally, the group plans to simplifying its structure to “streamline decision-making processes, strengthen the performance culture and unlock teams’ energy”.
While no initial targets were given in the unveiling of the plan earlier today (8 April), a new steering committee, comprising five of Rémy’s senior leaders, has been established to drive transformation at a group level.
Rémy’s finance, IT and legal lead Luca Marotta has been appointed deputy chief executive officer, while EMEA, North and South Asia-Pacific and Travel Retail CEO Ian McLernon has been named group chief markets officer.
Mélanie Bulourde and Clarisse Petit have retained their respective roles of group chief operations & CSR officer and group chief human resources officer.
A group chief brands officer will also be appointed at a later date, with Marilly assuming responsibility for this function in the interim.
It comes after a challenging period in which Rémy Cointreau has suffered declining sales driven by declines in cognac, particularly in China. Revenues fell by a fifth in the year to last April and by 4.3% in the first half of 2025-26.
Marilly, who joined Rémy last May after the departure of Éric Vallat, said the new structure would “instil greater discipline, rigor and performance focus” at the business.
“Our ambition is clear: to sustainably improve profitability in order to generate additional resources to reinvest in growth,” he added.
The transformation plan hinted at Rémy adopting a “more pragmatic approach to balancing affordability and premiumisation”, Jefferies analysts Ed Mundy and Sebastian Hickman said.
The organisational reshuffle, meanwhile, should “drive greater speed and accountability and improved execution”, they added.
Barclay’s analysts were more downbeat, however.
“We see the plan as a step in the right direction for Rémy, but struggle to see how it materially addresses the group’s key challenge of persistently soft markets,” Laurence Whyatt, Imogen McCurley and Ashutosh Jain said. “The core issue remains weak cognac demand against a backdrop of significant oversupply.”
“While market conditions may improve over time, the scale of this imbalance appears meaningful and, in our view, raises the risk of increased promotional activity and a potential erosion of brand equity.”
Shares in Rémy Cointreau climbed by around 3% in mid-morning trading.
No comments yet