Tours-sur-Marne, 16 May 2007 - For the 2006-2007 financial year (1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007), the Laurent-Perrier Group recorded sales of Euro 236.65 million, compared with Euro 208.07 million for the previous financial year.
This 13.7% increase can be broken down as follows:
|
1 April to 31 March 2007 |
Sales |
Of which due to volume |
Of which due to price/mix |
Of which due to foreign exchange |
| |
+ 13.7% |
+ 9.0 % |
+ 5.0% |
- 0.3% |
As the figures were released, Yves Dumont, chairman of the Management Board, said that "the growth in sales recorded by the Group in the 2006-2007 financial year demonstrates how efficiently we have implemented our strategy for almost ten years. For the second year running, our value strategy has translated into a substantial improvement in the price/mix effect, which reached + 5%, a level not seen by the Group in recent years. Continuing to deploy this strategy will be the cornerstone of our future success".
With shipments up 5.3% for the period 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007, the champagne market has been exceptionally dynamic. In exports in particular, growth has exceeded 8%. Yet again, in this favourable environment, the volumes sold by the Group outperformed the market.
Continued growth of exports and premium champagnes
Exports have continued to grow, now representing 64.9% of Group sales, a one-percentage point rise on the previous year. Sales were particularly dynamic in the US and UK and in other major overseas export markets, where in the last quarter the business benefited from the start-up volumes necessary for the new collaboration with Suntory in Japan.
Premium Laurent-Perrier champagnes, and particularly Grand Siècle, continued to improve, accounting for 36.5% of brand sales, 0.3 percentage points higher than the previous year.
Further improvement in the price/mix effect
The price/mix effect made a + 5.6% contribution to the growth in sales in the last quarter, a further significant rise following the slowdown witnessed in the third quarter and attributable to the seasonal nature of the business. Across the entire year, the price/mix effect stood at + 5%, up 1.5 percentage points on the previous year's performance.
Laurent-Perrier will release its results for the year ended 31 March 2007 on 1 June 2007.
Laurent-Perrier is the only Champagne House listed on the French stock exchange, concentrating exclusively on premium champagnes. Laurent-Perrier offers a broad range of products renowned for their quality and sold under four main brands: Laurent-Perrier, Salon, Delamotte and Champagne de Castellane.