After a difficult year in 2022 due to the increase in the price of glass or alcohol, French spirits manufacturers expect new difficulties in 2023, linked in particular to a drop in shipments of their bottles abroad. In total, the sector generated 5,000 million euros of turnover in large distribution (-4.4%) in France in 2022, and 5,500 million euros without export taxes (+11.7%), the main driver of growth for these drinks, indicated the French Federation of Spirits.
Sales in cafes, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs have increased by more than 50%. Excited at the beginning of 2022 by the return of the public to these establishments after the Covid-19 pandemic, the 250 companies in the federation -SMEs and spirits giants- were hit by the rise in production costs linked to the war in Ukraine. The price of sugar, which is used to make alcohol, an important ingredient in spirits, has increased by “40% to 80%” in 2022, as has that of glass.
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“The year 2022 was positive in terms of sales trends, but very complicated by increases in the cost price, which we were unable to pass on” to customers, stressed Jean-Pierre Cointreau, president of the Federation. According to Thomas Gauthier, director of the federation, only 11% of operators managed to have “these increases in production costs taken into account” during negotiations with large French retailers, completed on March 1, 2023.
The federation still does not see a “calm” in the price of its raw materials in 2023, and “exports, which were a good growth engine, are no longer so”, especially in the United States, Thomas Gauthier has indicated. During the first three months of the year, the drop in volumes dispatched is estimated at 20%.
Source: BFM TV
