For a decade, the global spirits industry rode one of its brightest growth stories: the globalisation of aperitivo. Aperol Spritz evolved from a Venetian ritual into a shared cultural moment worldwide, powering Campari Group to some of the sector’s highest compound annual growth rates. In 2025, that engine slowed. The Aperol franchise grew just +1%, the broader House of Aperitifs +2% – a sharp deceleration from prior double-digit momentum. Campari’s overall organic net sales rose +2.4% (to €3,051 million), or +3% excluding a Jamaica hurricane hit. The figure looks resilient. Campari’s full-year 2025 results, released this week, mark the end of easy, ritual-driven expansion – and the start of a more demanding phase for the industry.
The question is no longer whether aperitivo can conquer the world – that story is written. The real test is whether Campari, and the industry it once led, can adapt to normalisation: higher defence costs, stricter portfolio discipline, and the urgent search for new occasions.
The Cultural Lifecycle of Aperol
Aperol’s success was never just about flavour or the aperitif category. It was about inventing a ritual – the Aperol Spritz as the effortless, sociable “shared drink” for late afternoons and early evenings. Like Red Bull or Corona before it, Aperol followed a classic cultural arc: discovery in Europe, ritual creation around the Spritz, global diffusion through the 2010s and early 2020s – and now saturation.
By 2025, penetration in core markets had peaked. Growth normalised to low single digits. The Aperol franchise managed +1% (or +2% excluding specific disruptions in Brazil, Jamaica and Germany). The House of Aperitifs overall advanced +2%, pulled by Sarti Rosa’s triple-digit surge in new markets and Crodino’s +7% in Europe. Rituals spread slowly but powerfully. Once absorbed into drinking habits, further growth becomes harder – and more expensive.
Growth Quality and the US Ceiling
Other engines provided offsets: agave spirits like Espolòn grew steadily at +3%, while Courvoisier’s full-year impact drove the cognac and champagne house up +13.7%. Whiskey and rum held +2% despite Jamaican disruption. Yet these were base effects and geographic fill-ins, not new ritual-level explosions.
The slowdown bites hardest in the Americas (44% of sales), where organic growth was +2% but the US – once the explosive driver – was flat. On-premise activations delivered sell-out outperformance and share gains, yet off-premise remained soft, with pressure on SKYY and Grand Marnier (-8%). In mature markets like the US, distribution power has tilted toward powerful retailers and wholesalers, making broad-scale brand expansion tougher without outsized investment.
Europe’s core aperitivo heartlands showed saturation: Italy -1%, Germany -3% (or +3% excluding a de-listing hit). Brighter spots – UK +7%, Australia +7%, other EMEA and emerging markets +8% – remain smaller in scale.
Profitability and the Rise of Brand Defence Costs
Margins told a disciplined story. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded +100bps organically to 25.7%, EBIT-adjusted to 20.9% (+60bps). Gross margin gained +100bps through agave tailwinds and supply-chain efficiencies, while SG&A control added +70bps.
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Yet the cost was visible in advertising and promotion (A&P), which rose to 17.9% of sales (+100bps organically, +8.7% spend growth). Almost all gross and SG&A gains were reinvested to protect momentum. As the spirits market matures, marketing is shifting from an expansion driver to a defence cost. Maintaining brand momentum in slower growth, fragmented channels and intensified competition simply demands more spend – a reality now evident at Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Brown-Forman and Campari alike.
Campari’s balance sheet discipline is clear – leverage already at 2.5x and dividends up 54%. But it also suggests fewer obvious avenues for rapid expansion.
Campari’s Three Strategic Bets
To counter the slowdown, Campari rests on three structured bets:
- Premium spirits global expansion – Espolòn and Courvoisier scaling in high-potential geographies.
- Aperitivo ecosystem extension – Sarti Rosa, Crodino and others broadening the franchise beyond Aperol.
- Occasion diversification – RTD, non-alcoholic/low-alcohol formats and convenience plays to capture new drinking moments.
The risk is timing: the aperitivo engine may mature faster than these alternatives can scale.
The Post-Boom Reality
For more than a decade, global spirits benefited from an extraordinary alignment: premiumisation, cocktail culture and emerging-market tailwinds. That alignment is fading. What follows is normalisation – higher defence costs, portfolio discipline, selective premiumisation (“drink less but better”), and the hunt for new rituals.
Campari’s 2025 results are not a crisis.
They are a preview – perhaps the clearest yet – of what the post-boom spirits industry really looks like.
When Aperol slows, everything changes.
