English: Songhe and Moutai – modern Baijiu brands from China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Read “corruption” for “austerity” and that would explain why sales and profits have dropped like a stone.
FT: “Sales of Diageo’s baijiu, a clear grain spirit popular in China, slumped 40 per cent in the first quarter of this year as the world’s biggest distiller became the latest casualty of China’s crackdown on conspicuous consumption.
The rapid deterioration in fortunes at Shui Jing Fang, one of the first Chinese household names to be taken over by a foreign company, comes as other makers of high priced spirits have suffered falling sales amid the chill winds of austerity with socialist characteristics. It is a turnround for the drinks industry which, like other purveyors of status symbols, had become accustomed to runaway growth in China comfortably offsetting European weakness.
Pernod Ricard, the world’s second-biggest distiller after UK-listed Diageo, is set to report an annual decline in Scotch whisky sales in China, following years of surging growth. This came after flat sales over the Chinese New Year period, when it sold more Cognac but saw Scotch sales fall by double-digits in percentage terms year-on-year.
Diageo has so far shrugged off concerns about the crackdown saying it is having little effect on gifting, which makes up 10 to 15 per cent of Scotch and Cognac sales in the country.
Kweichow Moutai, China’s largest baijiu maker, reported a halving in year-on-year profit growth in the first quarter. Baijiu, like a host of other food and drinks in China, has also been caught up in food safety concerns.
Shui Jing Fang, which Diageo acquired last year after years of protracted and complex negotiations, saw both sales and earnings before interest and tax fall by 40 per cent in the first quarter of the calendar year, Diageo said on an investor call on Tuesday. That followed net sales growth of 10 per cent and operating profit growth of 12 per cent in the previous full year.
Although Shui Jing Fang is just a drop of Diageo’s sales at around 1 per cent, baijiu dwarfs sales of international spirits in China and is seen as an attractive sector for multinationals to increase their grip on.”
via Chinese austerity hits Diageo’s sales – FT.com.
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