Rémy Cointreau’s first-quarter results suggest that ultra-premium spirits are no longer recovering through broader demand. Growth is being assembled around fewer, higher-value occasions.
Sales reached €223.2 million in the April-June period, up 1.3% on an organic basis. Cognac rose 7.7% to €141.9 million. Liqueurs & Spirits fell 6.6% to €79.6 million. A year earlier the same quarter delivered 5.7% organic growth, driven largely by a low comparison base and a sharp technical rebound in the United States. The headline numbers look modest. The composition of growth has shifted in a more revealing way.
The clearest signal came from China. Overall sales there recorded a limited decline in a market still constrained by soft consumer confidence and regulatory pressure. Yet the group posted more than 12% growth during the 618 e-commerce festival. That single retail event was large enough to influence the quarterly outcome. At the same time, Rest of Asia delivered strong double-digit gains, led by higher-end Rémy Martin expressions and Louis XIII. Demand is concentrating around purchase windows where the outlay feels justified rather than around a general return of volume.
A parallel pattern appears in the Americas. Cognac sales were held back by residual destocking in Canada and a high comparison base in Latin America. The United States remained solid, with sequential improvement in depletions. Liqueurs & Spirits declined mainly because of unfavourable shipment timing after the previous quarter’s rebound, yet core brands still recorded positive depletion growth. The gap between shipments and consumer offtake has not disappeared. What has become clearer is the selective nature of the demand that is actually materialising.
These results sit inside the company’s confirmed trajectory of a progressive return to sustainable organic sales growth. The more important question is whether the occasions that are currently working can be extended. The 618 performance, the strength of prestige expressions in Rest of Asia, and the gradual stabilisation of depletions in the United States all point in the same direction. Consumers are not rediscovering everyday or frequent drinking habits in the ultra-premium tier. They are choosing carefully when the purchase feels exceptional.
This is consistent with the mid-cycle adjustment that has defined the category. What remains is a market in which growth depends less on recovering volume than on capturing the consumption triggers that consumers still regard as worth paying for. Brands that can protect equity, manage inventory with discipline and execute with precision around those moments are finding progress. Those waiting for a broad recovery are finding less of it.
For Rémy the quarter does not announce a full turn in the cycle. It shows that growth is being rebuilt through selective strength rather than restored through volume. The real test is whether these successful purchase windows can become more repeatable and can be replicated across more markets without relying on a general market recovery. In the current environment that is the more realistic path.
