PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French drinks company Pernod Ricard SA (PDRDF.PK, PDRDY.PK, PRN.L) reported Thursday that its first-quarter sales totaled 2.248 billion euros, 1 percent higher than last year's 2.223 billion euros. Organic sales growth was 4 percent, while growth was 3 percent restated for the French technical impact.
Americas sales increased 3 percent on a reported basis and 8 percent organically, driven by continued strength in the USA. Europe sales grew 4 percent, partly favoured by technical impacts. Meanwhile, Asia/ Rest of world sales dropped 2 percent.
The company said the strategic International Brands sales increased 3 percent and were a key driver of overall sales growth improvement. This was the result of the continued strong momentum on Jameson, good growth on Ballantine's and improvement on Absolut and Martell.
The Strategic Local Brands grew 5 percent thanks to Indian whiskies and Seagram's Gin in Europe but difficulties for Imperial in Korea. Strategic Wines were down 1 percent, mainly due to shipment phasing.
Looking ahead, Alexandre Ricard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, 'We have had a good start to the financial year, consistent with our full year guidance. Therefore, we confirm our FY17 guidance of organic growth in Profit from Recurring Operations of between +2 percent and +4 percent.'
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX