Pernod Ricard’s global travel retail sales declined -3% year-on-year for the French drinks company’s financial year ended 30 June amid varying conditions in key regions.
Announcing its full-year results yesterday, the Chivas Regal-to-Martell brand owner painted a mixed picture of travel retail’s fortunes.
While international passenger traffic continues to grow (now circa +10% ahead of pre-COVID 2019), the key Asia region was adversely affected by weakness in South Korea, a long-term Pernod Ricard stronghold.
Q4 travel retail sales were negatively impacted by the Middle East conflict, a factor also expected to weigh on Q1 FY27 revenue.
More positively, the China duty-free market saw a strong recovery – Martell generated sell-out growth during Chinese New Year – following the late 2025 resolution of a bitter trading dispute between the French and Chinese governments that had hit Cognac sales hard.
Strong brand activations across Asia and dynamic traveller numbers in Europe and Americas were positives. Europe benefitted from growing US tourism while travel retail in the Americas trade was boosted by “dynamic growth” in the cruiseline sector.
Brand standouts in travel retail were Jameson and Martell in Asia (helped by the China rebound).
Strong innovation execution was epitomised by the successful launch of travel retail-exclusive ranges from The Glenlivet and Aberlour.
Foreign exchange losses and weak US and China domestic markets hit hard
Groupwide (see table below), organic sales declined -3.9% year-on-year (-14.2% reported) to €9,404 million. The result was partly driven by a negative FX impact mainly due to the US Dollar, Indian Rupee and Turkish Lira, and a negative perimeter impact mainly from brand disposals.
FY26 organic profit fell -5.2% (-17.9% reported).
Continued softness in the US domestic market and weak demand in China were mitigated by improving trends and growth in the rest of the world, excluding a war-hit Middle East in Q4.
The group saw improving momentum in H2 with organic sales growth improving from -5.9% in H1 to -1.3% in the second half.
Sales in China slumped -19% year-on-year, hit by a challenging macro-economic environment, continuing weak consumer sentiment and regulatory measures impacting demand. Prestige categories came under pressure, notably reflected in soft Martell sales. ✈
