Campari is celebrating strong performance in its HY2022 results, but its sales in Australia were hampered by poor weather.

Globally, reported net sales were €1,256.9 million, up +25.6%, organic growth of +19.2% vs the first half 2021 (+45% vs. the first half 2019 or three-year organic CAGR of +13.2%). There was also organic growth of +12.5% in the second quarter despite the tough comparison base.

In the Asia Pacific (7% of total group sales) grew organically by +7.8%, while Campari Australia was only up 2.1%.

Bob Kunze-Concewitz, Chief Executive Officer, told analysts in an earnings call: “This overall performance was driven by a slightly negative Q2, where we were very affected by poor weather conditions as well as significant ocean freight constraints, which impacted in particular the availability of the Wild Turkey ready-to-drink business. As you know that’s about two-thirds of our total Australian business. So clearly, that was quite meaningful. The growth on the other hand was driven by Campari in Wild Turkey bourbon.”

Kunze-Concewitz said the company’s local priorities were impacted by the RTD business in Australia and only grew by 6.9%.

However, Wild Turkey’s growth was mainly driven by the core US market and Australia as well as South Korea. Paolo Marchesini, Chief Financial Officer also noted that Wild Turkey “continued to benefit from a strong association with Matthew McConaughey”. 

“Overall, we had a very strong performance in the first half, particularly the high-margin aperitifs in European markets, thanks to strong underlying momentum and on-premise recovery, boosted by favourable weather conditions and pricing.”

Aperol grew by 54.7%, with the Aperol Spritz ready-to-enjoy up by close to 130%, Campari up by 11.9% and Crodino up by 43.8%. 

“Looking at the remainder of 2022, though volatility and uncertainty remain due to the ongoing pandemic and geopolitical
tensions, we remain positive on the underlying momentum of key brand-market combinations,” Kunze-Concewitz said.

“Whilst our shipment performance is expected to reflect some temporary supply constraints, we expect to partially mitigate the less favourable sales mix and the accelerating inflationary pressures exacerbated by logistics costs, via planned price increases and operational efficiencies.”
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