CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said: “2012 results were overall satisfactory considering the very difficult market context and the continued steady progress in improving our brand and market mix.
“Regarding the existing business in 2012, adverse market conditions in the group’s traditional markets, particularly Italy, Brazil, Germany, affected our aperitifs and still wine portfolio but were compensated by strong growth in newly established sales platforms in Australia, Argentina and Russia in combination with the continued strong performance of the overall US business.
“Moreover, we benefitted from healthy cash flow generation thanks to good working capital management. Looking forward, we expect 2013 to be another challenging year due to heightened macroeconomic difficulties in Eurozone markets. However, continued positive momentum in the US and the Pacific, coupled with improvements in Latin America, stronger growth in eastern Europe, particularly in Russia, as well as a strong innovation pipeline and heightened brand building in our core categories will help compensate European weakness,” he said.
“Moreover, we expect to further strengthen our brand portfolio and route to market in the Americas and the Pacific thanks to our transformational acquisition of Lascelles deMercado. Net in net, looking forward we are well equipped to tackle the awaiting challenges,” said Kunze-Concewitz.
