Britons are the most dedicated home-drinkers of the pandemic, Rémy Cointreau suggests

<p>Remy Cointreau is a Paris-based company </p> (Pixabay)

Remy Cointreau is a Paris-based company

(Pixabay)

“Only the United Kingdom has really seen dynamic at-home consumption since the start of the pandemic,” Rémy Cointreau stated clearly today in a trading update.


The Paris-based company - maker of Rémy Martin cognac and Cointreau liqueur - was reporting how it had performed in the nine months to December 31, and the line stands out.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, despite “sequential improvement” towards the end of the year, the regions “continued to be hit hard by the closure of the on-trade”, the firm said.

In other words, with bars and restaurants closed, people across those regions drank less. Whereas in Britain, the company has registered people buying booze in a “dynamic” way since the first lockdown in April, suggesting that Britons consistently spent money on buying more of the French company’s high-end alcohol brands last year.

Rémy did make clear that Britons were not the only people in the world drinking more of their products while locked down at home, however.

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The firm said that at-home drinking of its premium brands increased in the third quarter in America as more people drank from home, and that British, Australian and American drinkers helped the brand see a rise of just over 7% in liquors and spirits sales, despite the closure of many hospitality venues. The UK saw “double digit growth” in sales in the segment in the period.

The update on British cognac-sipping habits came as the brand said on Friday that it is “confident in its ability to emerge stronger from the crisis”.

The company said group sales jumped by 25% in the third quarter, with “very strong” Cognac sales growing by 33% in the period meaning that in 2020, sales of the premium drink worldwide remained stable.

The firm’s finance chief Luca Marotta told Reuters that his teams were "very optimistic” about business prospects in China ahead of the Lunar New Year in February. The country is seeing a “quickening recovery”, the firm said.

For the first nine months of its financial year, which starts on April 1, the company’s sales were down 4.1% on a reported basis.

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