Henkell Freixenet has announced that it closed its financial year 2022 with a new sales record driven by its performance in America.
The company saw an after-tax sales increase of 8.5% year-on-year, to €1.2 billion, and continued to grow and consolidate its position as a leader in the global sparkling wine market.
Henkell Freixenet has been recognised as the global sparkling wine market leader, with a worldwide market share by value of 9.5%(+0.3% points year-on-year), according to data from IWSR.
"The focus on strong brands leads to a steady expansion of market-leading positions of our strategic core brands, which contributed disproportionately to our growth with a share of sales of now 70%," said Dr Andreas Brokemper, CEO of Henkell Freixenet.
"Currently, we are the market leader for Cava in 104 countries, the market leader for Prosecco in 38 countries, and the sparkling wine market leader in 33 countries," Brokemper added.
Annual Highlights
The Freixenet, Mionetto and Henkell brands grew by 9.7% in 2022, with Mionetto achieving double-digit sales growth for a second consecutive year.
The I heart WINES and Mangaroca Batida brands reported growth of 4.8%, with the latter seeing double-digit growth.
Elsewhere, the Champagne Alfred Gratien, Gratien & Meyer Crémant, Segura Viudas Cava, Gloria Ferrer Californian Sparkling and Schloss Johannisberg Riesling labels posted double-digit growth of 15.5%.
Alfred Gratien benefited from the high demand for champagne specialties, while Gratien & Meyer contributed to the growth of the Crémant category with its good performance.
Other brands, including Bohemia Sekt, Törley, Hubert Sekt, Fürst von Metternich and Vodka Gorbatschow, also made profits in this period.
While sparkling wine market leaders Bohemia, Törley and Hubert maintained their strong market positions, Wodka Gorbatschow achieved a new sales record for the fifth year in succession, the company noted.
Regional Performance
Net sales in the Americas region increased by 28.7% year-on-year to €216 million, which the company described as 'above-average' and 'highest sales to date'.
In the DACH region, (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) Henkell Freixenet witnessed sales growth of 3.4% to €318 million, following double-digit growth of Mionetto Prosecco and Vodka Gorbatschow in Germany.
Sales in Western Europe increased by 4.3% year-on-year, to €385 million, as Italy, Spain and France were boosted by the reopening of catering trade.
The Eastern Europe region saw sales growth of 9.2%, to €210 million, in the full-year 2022.
Read More: All Major Premium Drinks Categories Saw Growth In US In 2022: IWSR
Outlook
The company expects a challenging 2023 as price increases at all levels are causing continuing uncertainty among customers, suppliers and consumers.
It added that the biggest challenge would be to master the entire process from the purchase of grape, wine, casing and packaging materials to delivery to customers.
"As a family-owned company, we believe that Henkell Freixenet is well positioned, and despite the numerous challenges, we have planned for slight sales growth in 2023 in order to compensate for the continuing price increases, particularly in raw materials, but also in logistics," Brokemper commented.
© 2023 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest drinks news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
