Among our more "regional" brands, Telmont Champagne is the one we have taken the furthest. In little over a year, we have totally rethought its positioning and are already starting to reap the benefits. But what we are most proud of as a Group is undoubtedly our sustainability policy and more specifically its environmental aspects. Our dedication to our terroirs has made us a pioneering force in this area. We took things up a level this year with a new project, #APlanetOfException, which has made Rémy Cointreau the very first carbon-neutral spirits group. And this is just the beginning: for now, our carbon-neutrality relies on offsetting - an important interim step - but the ultimate goal is to reduce our emissions at source.
The record-breaking year was also notable for the remarkable growth in Liqueurs & Spirits. Has this division passed a new milestone?
Absolutely. And a milestone is exactly what it is - the first of many on our journey to realising our brands’ full potential. Cognac will of course always be first in terms of sales value; it’s in our DNA. But as part of our uptrading strategy, we have redefined what we mean by "exceptional", galvanising our teams in a push to boost our liqueurs and spirits brands. So we no longer define exceptional as "$50+". Instead, it is about products being exceptional for their category. Take Cointreau and The Botanist: they remain below the $50 price point but are nonetheless key in creating value for the Group and raising its profile, which in turn boosts our investment capacity. We increased our media spend and invested in top-notch content expressing each brand’s individual DNA in a bid to take them from "very good" to "outstanding" in the eyes of our customers. As a result, their values are starting to gain recognition with a wider audience. This marketing push was coupled with a strategic rethink of our distribution model, brand by brand and market by market. The fact that we have a ten-year rather than a three-year horizon is also key, because it allows us to aim higher. For our whiskies, for example, this long-term approach is what prompted our decision to completely overhaul our processes on Islay, introducing a far-reaching multi-year plan covering everything from malting to maturing, via distillation and bottling. We wanted to lay the groundwork for future growth, but without jeopardising what makes our whiskies so special: our rigorous ingredients selection, our production processes, our respect for terroir - and all the sustainability commitments that that respect entails.
And how would you say the first two years of your ten-year plan have gone?
First, I’d say that the most important thing about this plan is that it gives us a long-term goal to focus on given the growing short-term uncertainty. This is what has helped us stay true to our values worldwide - we were not thrown off course by the challenging short-term context. And our results have shown that we were right to stick to our guns. The plan has also been a unifying force for our Business Units, giving them a shared goal. We are in the favourable position of being ahead of our targets - something that is extremely rare over a company’s life cycle. This has freed up resources to invest even more than we had initially planned in our brands, establishing a virtuous circle. It also means that we got things right in terms of our pricing power, strengthening our brands and adding to their appeal. But it is important to remember that a transformation plan is more than just a roadmap and processes. It is first and foremost about people. Our results are down to the work of our teams, to whom I offer my sincere thanks. They should be very proud of what they have achieved in such challenging times.
Looking ahead to 2022/2023, how does the Group envision the future?
We are charentaise winegrowers. This makes us cautious by nature, even if we have shown that we can be ambitious too - the two are not mutually exclusive! But being dependent on the weather and climate keeps us humble in the face of the current uncertainty. Who could have predicted the pandemic or the war in Ukraine? And yet, we have reason to be confident. First, because our results have borne out the relevance of our strategy: it is right for the Group and in line with market trends. Second, because we have exceptional brands that still have so much more to give. Third, because we know where we’re going and how to get there: we have a clear plan and the very best teams in place to make it happen. And lastly, because, thanks to our strong performance over the past few years, we are now in a position to invest more than ever before in our brands. Today’s investments are tomorrow’s revenues.
