What lessons can you draw from these past 12 months?
First, I think we live in a world that will become increasingly unpredictable. As an organisation, we need to be as flexible and agile as possible. Second, in terms of the pandemic, I think it accelerated the development of pre-existing trends, which allowed us to gain years in terms of investments and education: at-home consumption, mixology, uptrading, e-commerce and a direct-to-consumer strategy, together with sustainability values. As a result, we have been gaining market share with our cognacs (as a category and within the category) as well as with Cointreau, while our single malt whiskies also performed strongly.
In other words, while the pandemic is clearly a dramatic situation at a human scale, as a Group we have been propelled into a new, long-term paradigm that offers increased business opportunities for Rémy Cointreau. We are optimistic, bold and ambitious for our brands worldwide. And we are increasingly focused on our teams and on the way we communicate, since the crisis has proven once again that people are at the heart of our success and our ongoing transformation.
On that basis, what are the prospects for the coming fiscal year?
All things being equal, we are reasonably optimistic for 2021/2022, as our two key markets – the United States and China – continue to enjoy strong demand for our spirits. In addition, we are starting the year with very low inventories worldwide, and particularly in the US, where demand exceeded our supply last year! We also hope the hospitality industry will gradually recover and that duty-free sales will show an improvement from the very low levels currently. In that more positive context, we will strongly invest in our brands to further strengthen their desirability and leverage consumption trends, which we believe are increasingly favourable to us.
To what extent did the pandemic alter your 2030 strategic plan and its targets?
It did not alter our strategic plan at all. In fact, it strengthened our confidence in our strategic decisions, such as the value strategy of our brown spirits, the development of a direct-to-consumer and e-commerce strategy, and the Group’s transformation to ensure more responsible growth. We are confident that we will achieve a 72% gross margin and a 33% current operating margin by 2030, while obtaining 100% responsible and sustainable farming certifications across all our terroirs and agricultural ingredients. We also believe that we will significantly reduce our carbon footprint, with the goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.
