Campari has reported strong growth both globally and in Australia, with overall sales up 5.3 per cent to €1711.7m and EBITs up 7.6 per cent to €378.8m over the full 2018 year.
Australia, which represents 5.2 per cent of total group sales, grew organically by 10.5 per cent, with key brands outperforming the market.
Particularly, the outperformance was driven by Wild Turkey bourbon, boosted by the introduction of the new premium extension Wild Turkey Longbranch, Wild Turkey ready-to-drink, Espolòn, GlenGrant, SKYY, Campari and Frangelico. Aperol continued its double-digit trend. The region’s other markets (2.3 per cent of total Group sales) were up organically by 18.8 per cent, mainly driven by the positive performance of Japan and China.
Bob Kunze-Concewitz, Chief Executive Officer said: “We achieved a solid performance across all key indicators in terms of organic growth and margin expansion in full year 2018, consistently delivering on long term strategy.
“Looking ahead into 2019, our outlook remains fairly balanced in terms of risks and opportunities as uncertainty around macroeconomic instability and currency volatility, particularly in emerging markets, remain. We expect the current underlying business performance to keep its momentum, while we continue facing headwinds from agave purchase price hike.
“Nevertheless, we remain confident in achieving a positive performance across the key underlying business indicators in 2019, driven by the continued outperformance of the high-margin Global and Regional priority brands in key developed markets.”
In terms of how some of the key brands performed in Australia, it was a positive year for Campari. Aperol saw double-digit growth, while there was a positive result for Skyy Vodka, although the brand registered a global decline on 8.1 per cent primarily due to weakness in the US market.
Wild Turkey and American Honey registered a positive organic change of seven per cent, driven by the solid growth of Wild Turkey bourbon (8.4 per cent). The core US market continued its positive trend, with very positive sales mix driven by premium expressions (such as newly launched Wild Turkey Longbranch, Russell’s Reserve and Master’s Keep Revival). Australia and Japan also registered a sustained growth. American Honey registered a positive performance as well.
There were also positive trends for Glen Grant in Australia, again off-setting global declines, and the Wild Turkey ready-to-drink range was up by 5.6 per cent thanks to a good performance in the core Australian market.
