Campari is celebrating a strong start to the year, with 27% global sales growth for Aperol in the first quarter.
Sales of Aperol were driven by a double-digit growth in the brand’s core markets of Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with deseasonalisation activities driving growth in winter months and the very strong growth of high potential and seeding markets such as the US, Russia, the UK, Australia, Spain, GTR, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
In Australia, the brand enjoyed another period of double-digit growth, with Campari noting that it was pleased with its third year of Aperol Spritz sponsorship at the Australian Open.
“An Aperol Spritz Beach Club was installed which proved to be the event’s most popular activation – the number one most sold beverage at the tournament,” the company said.
The winners in Australia
Overall in Australia, organic change in the period for Campari was negative at -2.3%, which the company attributed to an unfavourable basis of comparison due to the different timing of Easter.
Sales for Q1 reached almost $29million.
“Positive performances of Aperol, SKYY Vodka and Espolòn were more than offset by the weak sales of Wild Turkey bourbon due to fierce competitive pressure,” the company said.
Wild Turkey bourbon saw declines of -4.5%, while American Honey was described as experiencing “weakness in Australia”.
“Sales of Wild Turkey ready-to-drink were stable,” the company said. “In addition, the market’s performance was affected by the price repositioning of various brands during the quarter, while consumption trends were positive and outperformed market data in the main categories.”
Riccadonna struggled both in Australia and globally – it registered negative results of -9.1% due to a mid-single digit decline in core France against a difficult comparison base and “weakness” in Australia.
Frangelico also reported “some weakness” Australia.
