Rémy Cointreau on Cointreau’s pathway and resilience amid market headwinds

By Luke Barras-hill | Monday, 30 December 2024 1:23

– TRBusiness

French spirits group Rémy Cointreau has big things in store for triple sec orange-flavoured liqueur Cointreau in 2025, TRBusiness has learned.

In an exclusive video interview, Ian McLernon, CEO for EMEA, Asia Pacific and Global Travel Retail, and Fida Bou Chabke, CEO Global Travel Retail talk innovation across its four distribution channels (on-premise, off-premise, e-commerce and global travel retail) amid challenging market conditions.

To watch the full exchange, click the below video…

“Cointreau is a global brand for us, with sales across the globe and big markets in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and it’s being fuelled by the cocktail trend, especially the margarita,” commented Fida Bou Chabke, who explained why Cointreau is well positioned to capitalise on this, much like tequila, in global travel retail.

“In the way we activate we really try to focus on cocktails and bringing exciting things,” she continued. “Next year expect more from Cointreau – we are really excited.”

Despite a volatile global trading climate in 2024, Fida Bou Chabke confirms a robust performance from the travel retail division fuelled by improved traffic growth at airports.

Cointreau – perhaps the lesser publicised other half of the Group’s portfolio – has benefitted from limited edition city-themed liquids and accompanying cocktails.

Fida Bou Chabke continued: “Everybody is looking for more experiences, which is our way of getting more value for clients rather than just having price promotions.”

Ian McLernon added: “Cointreau is universal and the universality is mixology. We believe in the versatility of the product; this year we’ve just launched a new ready-to-drink.”

The campaign to celebrate Rémy Martin’s tricentenary activated earlier this year has enjoyed healthy traction among travellers.

Coupled with this has been the successful launch of a new travel retail exclusive range from B-Corp Certified Bruichladdich Distillery – TRBusiness was on location in Islay recently to preview the new liquid, click here to read the full report.

While acknowledging the volatile macroeconomic environment on business, Ian McLernon remains confident in prevailing trends such as trading-up, premiumisation, at-home mixology and digital commerce.

Moderation is the new reality

Addressing the first, McLernon said: “In most markets around the world we see consumers are drinking less. We know that no- and low-[alcohol] is not a trend, it’s a reality and a choice and consumers want to have choice.

“We believe as an alcohol and a spirits company that moderation is the right approach and something we firmly believe in. Consumers will choose to drink better quality […] and we know quite often when people are shopping they are asking about the credentials of brands – where is it produced? Is it sustainable?

Global travel retail remains an important strategic distribution channel for the Group, which has introduced new LEPs for Cointreau and Bruichladdich this year. Premiumisation remains a driver to purchase, with Rémy Martin’s 300th anniversary enjoying impactful exposure at airports.

“[Champagne] Telmont has the lightest weight champagne bottle. We’ve eliminated secondary packaging from a lot of our brands and we know this makes a big difference to consumers and their choice. In the future, we think this will become more important in terms of brand choices.”

Rémy Cointreau, recognised with the five-star TR ‘Sustainability Hero’ accolade in this year’s TR Sustainability Pitch programme, witnessed a 16% slide in organic sales to €533.7 million in its first-half results 2024/2025 released on 28 November.

Cognac and liqueur & spirits divisions suffered losses of -17.5% and -12%, respectively.

Sales in the Americas were down 22.8%, with the firm noting a slow recovery in the US.

However, ‘sequential improvements’ in value depletions in Cognac from Q1 to Q2 and resilience in its liqueur and spirits divisions offers more optimism via the strength of its pricing strategy, noted the Group.

EMEA and APAC sales were down by 18.8% and 8%, respectively, marked out by factors including slackening demand for whisky in China amid uncertain market conditions and slowing consumption in Southeast Asia.

In a statement at the time, CEO Eric Vallat commented: “The second half will see continued efforts to rein in costs as part of our €50m full-year savings plan. But it is essential that we do not lose sight of our goals – and in that respect the time has come to prepare for recovery.

“We thus plan to begin reintroducing targeted investments in marketing as early as H2, to support peak activity both in the US and China. Thanks to the quality of our brands and our teams’ engagement and talent, we can look to the future with confidence as we press ahead.”

Rémy Cointreau will report its 2024-25 Q3 sales on 29 January 2025.