The Rémy Cointreau Group has proved extremely resilient despite the public health crisis of 2020/2021, reflecting its clients' loyalty to its wine and spirit brands, the relevance of its strategy, and the agility of its teams. Rémy Cointreau most definitely came through this crisis even stronger, which confirms our ambition to become the leader in exceptional spirits.
As evidenced by its financial and non-financial results, 2020/2021 was a year marked by resilience and a source of genuine satisfaction for the Rémy Cointreau Group. After a challenging start to the year — a sharp drop in sales due to the collapse of air traffic and on-trade consumption — the second half of the year posted a spectacular recovery, which enabled us to end the year with positive organic sales growth and a return to the record profitability of the 2018/2019 financial year.
This rebound was mainly driven by the rapid business recovery in China from the summer of 2020, and by the US, its core market, which benefited from an acceleration of underlying trends on the back of the pandemic. The year was shaped around the rise in off-trade mixology and consumption, outstanding performance of the high-end ranges, strong development in online sales, and the growing interest in corporate social responsibility. These trends, which are central to the Group's strategy, enabled it to effectively address the upheaval caused by the pandemic. They also enabled us to emerge from this crisis even stronger and look toward the future with confidence.
It was also important for Rémy Cointreau, whatever the circumstances, to continue to fulfil its social obligations with regard to its employees, its stakeholders and the planet, in line with its commitments to the Global Compact.
In addition to financial performance, the Group continued to take action in accordance with its values and resources. First and foremost, it took care of its teams, protecting them as much as possible from the virus through various concrete actions, but also by ensuring full pay, without using state aid. Rémy Cointreau then played an active role in the collective effort to make hand sanitizer, driven by the generosity and enthusiasm of the teams at the various production sites. A number of sponsorship initiatives aimed at helping and supporting the bartender community and hospitality industry were also set up in the various global markets.
Lastly, from an environmental perspective, the Group continued its actions to promote sustainable agriculture and implemented new initiatives to reduce its carbon footprint. These efforts were rewarded on several occasions in 2020/2021. In May 2020, our Bruichladdich distillery obtained "B-Corp" certification, which recognizes its social and environmental performance.
In December 2020, Rémy Cointreau was ranked as the most "responsible" French company in the agri-food sector in the study published by Le Point magazine, and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) granted it "Leadership" status (rating A-) in the area of climate change. While these results reflect the merit of the Group’s commitment, above all they encourage us to continue and expand our actions.
I would like to thank our shareholders for the trust they have placed in Rémy Cointreau, which for some, was established many years ago.
At the end of 2020/2021, our 2030 targets for achieving profitable and responsible growth are confirmed and resolutely ambitious for the years to come.
