Q1 results: who were the winners and losers?

By Emily Kearns, Erin Smith

Published: 24 October, 2013

Q1 net sales results are coming in and while Pernod Ricard posted an organic net sales 1% loss, Diageo posted an organic net sales growth of 3.1%.

Pernod Ricard sighted the slowdown in emerging markets, and also saw a 9% decrease in reported growth due to a particularly unfavorable exchange rate. Additionally, is does look like Asia and the rest of the world posted a 14% decline compared with last year's Q1 figures.

Chief executive officer of Pernod Ricard, Pierre Pringuet, said: "Our first quarter was adversely affected by the slowdown in emerging markets and unfavourable technical effects. However, we remain confident in the diversity of our portfolio and the strength of our distribution network."

Diageo, on the other hand, had positive organic net growth, with Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as North America posting the largest gains. Latin America posted a 10.9% increase and North America posted a 5.1% increase in organic net sales growth. The termination of the distribution agreement of Jose Cuervo had a negative impact on numbers and is what pulled the sales numbers down.

Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo, said: "Our performance in the quarter was good given weakness in some markets. The strength of our biggest business, US spirits, underpinned our performance. While there are headwinds in some emerging markets, including the impact of the government policies in China, there are also markets in which we continue to deliver robust growth and Diageo's strength is the diversity of our geographic breadth and broad category reach."

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