Diageo reports 2% increase in Guinness sales
The 2% growth in Guinness sales is put down to innovations such as ‘The Brewers Project’.
Net sales of spirits were down 2% for Diageo Ireland as the category continued to be affected by last year’s duty increase, stated the company.
But Ireland is experiencing an increase in interest in the gin category from consumers according to Diageo’s Country Director for Ireland David Smith. Gordon’s gin grew 1.7% in volume. The on-trade in particular saw significant growth for Gordon’s of 7.4%.
Guinness grew total trade volumes 2.6% with growth of 7.5% in the off-trade (however no figure for Guinness sales in the on-trade was given). It enjoys an on-trade volume share of 34.0% here and maintained a 19.8% volume share in NI, stated David Smith, who added that Baileys sales here were broadly flat but the brand enjoys 74.7% of the cream liqueur category by volume.
“We also enjoyed a strong performance from one of our iconic Irish brands Smithwicks with growth of 3% to a volume share of 4.4% in our total trade,” he stated.
Diageo plc reported a net sales increase of 5% to £10.8 billion on a reported basis with a reported Operating Profit of £3.066 billion, down 2%, before exceptional items.
Beer sales were down 2% on a reported basis although they were up 3% in organic volume and 4% in value in the year to 30th June.
While Diageo’s spirits sales showed growth of 10% on a reported basis, they were down 2% in volume and 1% in value organically.
In Nigeria, sales declined but performance improved over the course of the year and volume share stabilised. Sales declined in Indonesia due to adverse regulatory changes.
Baileys had a particularly bad year with sales down 4% in both organic volume and value while volume sales of Guinness were down 2%, flatlining in value organically. Guinness net sales were up, however, by 3% in the US and by 2% in Europe.
