Campari Group has announced reported net sales of €2,172.7 million in its 2021 full-year results, with organic growth of 25.6%. The drinks giant saw sustained net sales organic growth in the fourth quarter, up 20.9% despite the pandemic’s fourth wave impacting consumption and logistics.

Sales in Asia Pacific (7.7% of total Group sales) grew organically by 22.9%. However, Australian sales were flat (although up 20.1% vs full year 2019), with a decline in the fourth quarter attributed to poor weather conditions and trans-ocean supply constraints.

Chief Executive Officer Bob Kunze-Concewitz told analysts: “Australia unfortunately was flattish versus 2020. This is both on the one hand the reflection of a very tough comp base. We were up 20.2% on the previous year. But at the same time, Q4 was a slowdown, both due to the comp base but also to very, very poor weather and that’s a high seasonality moment for Australia, as there aren’t many barbecues or people partying in beaches. At the same time, unfortunately, this market was impacted by trans-ocean shipments delays and constraints. If we look at the rest of the region though, and this is were clearly, we’re investing significantly, we’re up 109.4%, triple-digit growth in all key markets.”

Aperol hits new heights for Campari

Aperol – Campari’s largest brand – saw 32.8% global growth, thanks to renewed strength in consumer recruitment in the on-premise channel alongside sustained home consumption. Core markets such as Italy, the US, France, the UK, Russia, Switzerland, Belgium, and Austria grew by double digits, while newer markets such as China and Mexico grew even faster.

“Q4 was also very strong, up 45.8%, boosted by deseasonalisation activities and particularly the presence of the brand in skiing resorts,” Kunze-Concewitz said. “Versus 2019, we’re up 32.2%, so it’s really an incredible momentum continuing on this brand. At the same time, we continue to see that some VIP afficionados of the brand continue to run their homage to it. And we’d like to thank David Beckham for actually posting – voluntarily posting, I might underline, three or four great posts last week enjoying Aperol Spritz in a French premium skiing resort.”

Beckham boasts more than 71 million followers, making it quite the coup for the brand.

Campari also delivered strong growth of 30.1% thanks to all major markets. It benefitted from positive home mixology trends as well as positive on-premise momentum, driven by proprietary cocktails such as the Negroni, Boulevardier and Americano and the spread of the Campari Spritz in established markets.

Wild Turkey showed strong growth of 10.9%, mainly driven by the outperformance of premium expressions in the core US market. SKYY grew +8.2% driven by the international markets, particularly in South Africa, while the core US market was slightly negative. Grand Marnier was up 43.2%, with strong growth in the core US market. The growth in the Jamaican rum portfolio (up 22.7%) was driven by the favourable category trends in premium rum, particularly in the core US, Canada, Jamaica and the UK.

Kunze-Concewitz noted that “cocktail culture has penetrated home and home mixology is here to stay”.

Kunze-Concewitz concluded: “2021 was a very successful year as we delivered strong business performance across key financial indicators. The solid results were achieved thanks to very healthy brand momentum benefiting from overall increased consumption and penetration versus pre-pandemic levels. Such positive trends continued in the fourth quarter despite the fourth-wave disruption at year-end.

“Looking at 2022, we remain highly confident about the continued strong business momentum with accelerated consumer
recruitment across our key brands, fully leveraging new consumption habits across both on-premise and off-premise channels.”

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