Pernod Ricard Sees Continued Absolut Growth In US, Elsewhere
Thursday April 3rd, 2008 / 16h40
LONDON -(Dow Jones)- France's Pernod Ricard SA (12069.FR) expects its newly-acquired Absolut vodka brand to continue growing sales in the low-to-mid single digits in the U.S. and in the high single digits elsewhere, Managing Director Pierre Pringuet said Thursday. "In the U.S. we can maintain a low-to-mid single digit growth rate," Pringuet told reporters in London, "and certainly in the rest of the world we can get high single digit growth." Absolut vodka sales grew 4% last year in the U.S. and 14% in the rest of the world. Pernod Monday bought Swedish state-owned Vin & Sprit, maker of Absolut vodka, for EUR5.63 billion. As well as owning Absolut, Vin & Sprit also own a number of other brands, including Plymouth Gin. Pringuet said Pernod wouldn't sell any other brands unless it had to for antitrust reasons. He said Plymouth gin would only be sold if the company was required to do so by competition authorities. "Otherwise, it's a nice brand," he said. Pernod also owns Beefeater gin. Pringuet said while there were still some areas in its portfolio that Pernod would like to strengthen through acquisition, the group would concentrate on paying down its debt first. However, he added that this could happen quite quickly. "We could be back in acquisition mode very soon," he said. He mentioned tequila and wine as two categories the group would be interested in strengthening. -By Michael Carolan, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9278; michael.carolan@dowjones.com
