Though sales volumes for the renowned Champagne house Bollinger were down in 2014, its revenue increased.
This is in keeping with its quasi-aristocratic image, as it refused to involve itself in "crazy promotions," its president Jérôme Philippon was quoted as saying in The Drinks Business.
That there wwas simultaneously increased revenue and reduced sales volumes is not consistent with its trajectory of recent years, as in 2011, 2012 and 2013 both grew.
Philippon said the changes owe to trading in the UK "exclusively – because we didn't participate in the chaos of the last six months of 2014, when there was double discounting on wines and spirits in retailers, so there might be £10 off and then a 25-per-cent reduction too, which meant that in all retailers you could buy the top brands for £20-22."
He added "We decided not to supply that kind of crazy promotion, and that has cost us volume at the end of last year, but our volume reduction is not huge, and it's all from the UK due to Special Cuvée [Bollinger's Brut NV] not participating in big promotions."
© 2015 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article written by Peter Donnelly.
