INTEGRATED ANNUAL REPORT 2020/2021

How would you characterise the year 2020/2021 and how did Remy Cointreau perform in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic?

Well, it was a year full of surprises. For the first time in our more than 300-year history, all of our bottling factories across the world had to close for a few weeks, and we all had to learn to work remotely. But more importantly, a significant part of our business literally came to a halt with the closure of the hospitality industry and the collapse in international tourism. At the same time, we benefited from a significant pick-up in at-home consumption and mixology, combined with favourable uptrading trends. This was particularly true in the United States and in the United Kingdom, but also in Australia. Moreover, the Chinese market recovered in the summer of 2020 and enjoyed strong consumption trends during its two key events: the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Chinese New Year. On the whole, I would never have imagined at the beginning of the fiscal year that our business would prove to be so resilient: organic growth of nearly 2% in our revenues and 13% in our current operating profit is a great achievement. We owe it to the strength of our brands and the loyalty of our clients, but also to the passion and energy of our teams, which have been incredibly agile in this challenging context.

Talking about your teams, what protective measures did you take during the pandemic?

The protection and health of our teams have always been at the forefront of our decisions (with working from home becoming a widespread practice as far as possible). Given the very low visibility in March/April 2020, we had to implement some cost-cutting measures at the very start of the pandemic, including compensation cuts, a hiring freeze, and reduced non-strategic investments. Both senior management (including our President, board members and executive committee) and Group employees participated in the collective effort. This internal solidarity enabled us to protect employment overall, without relying on public subsidies in France or abroad. However, our business strength also gives us responsibilities. We have been supporting our communities in the past twelve months, whether by supplying alcohol to make hand sanitizer or by providing financial aid to those most affected, starting with our on-trade partners.