Diageo Ireland net sales down 23%

As Lockdown continued, Diageo's sales in Ireland declined significantly in the year to the 30th of June 2021 due to the Irish consumer's preference for going out to the on-trade according to the company's preliminary results just published.

 

This particularly affected Guinness sales in both Ireland and the UK which also has a marked preference for on-trade consumption compared to other countries. This drove a 21% net decline in Diageo’s beer sales in its Europe & Turkey sector as Guinness sales dropped 19%.

 

Ireland

Sales at Diageo Ireland experienced an organic net decline of 23% as volumes shrunk by 8%.

Severe restrictions on the on-trade here helped drive the net sales decline.

This was “primarily due to a decline in Guinness net sales of 32% as a result of continued on-trade restrictions,” states the company while pointing out that, “Spirits grew 14% driven by strong off-trade growth, particularly in Baileys and Gordon’s”.

The decline in sales of Guinness in its Europe and Turkey section was offset by growth in Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and Guinness Extra Smooth in Africa as well as Guinness Draught in Can in Europe and Turkey, all of which led to a flat global sales performance for the brand.

 

Diageo global performance

Globally organic volumes were up 11% for Diageo while net sales showed organic growth of 16% to £12.733 billion from £11.752 billion.

Beer, which grew 4% globally, is responsible for 15% of Diageo’s net sales.

The company has declared pre-tax profits of £3.7 billion.