By Dominique Vidalon
PARIS (Reuters) – Pernod Ricard reported a 3% fall in full-year 2025 organic sales which met forecasts, but warned of lower first quarter revenues amid tariff uncertainty and sliding sales in the United States and China.
The French company, which is the world’s second-biggest Western spirits maker by revenue after Diageo, said that for its 2026 fiscal year, it expected improving sales trends skewed towards the second half and lower first quarter sales.
Pernod said distributor inventory adjustments would continue in the United States, while consumer demand would stay soft in China.
Pernod – which has launched a restructuring plan to cut costs – reiterated its guidance for between 3% and 6% annual organic sales growth for 2027-2029, along with annual organic margin expansion.
Sales reached 10.959 billion euros ($12.83 billion) in the twelve months to June 30, representing an organic decline of 3% which met analysts’ expectations for a 3% fall.
Profit from recurring operations stood at 2.951 billion euros, marking an organic decline of 0.8%.
The maker of Absolut vodka and Jameson whiskey said sales declined by 6% in the United States. Prolonged tariff uncertainty impacted distributor inventory levels at the year-end, with adjustments expected for its 2026 fiscal year, it added.
In China, Pernod’s annual 2025 sales fell 21% as weak consumer demand and the looming conclusion of an anti-dumping investigation led to an overhang in distributor inventories.
Pernod added this meant it was forecasting a sharp decline in sales in China in the first quarter of 2026.
($1 = 0.8542 euros)
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
