Strong growth from Diageo

Chief executive Paul Walsh said the result was down to a combination of Diageo's leading brands and its global reach. Walsh reported that the main drivers of top and bottom line growth were International, where scotch in Latin America and beer in Africa drove net sales growth of 16%, and North America, where growth in the priority brands drove a 5% increase in net sales. “In Europe, we delivered better performance than last year, with net sales up 3% from growth in Eastern Europe, Russia and Great Britain. In Asia Pacific, even though overall performance was impacted by the loss of our Korean licence for part of the year, we grew the top line 2% as we gained share in China and expanded in India and the markets of South East Asia,” he went on. “We have continued to invest behind great campaigns and this year has seen our global priority brands again extend their leadership positions. Smirnoff grew across all markets posting 8% volume and 10% net sales growth. Johnnie Walker grew net sales by 12% and now has annual net sales of over £1 billion. The return to growth of JeB in Europe together with its strong performance in International delivered 9% net sales growth. Guinness grew net sales 6% with over 50% of that growth coming from Africa, where the brand grew 13%. Our other beer brands in Africa grew net sales 25%. “Price rises and mix improvement covered increased input costs and gross margin has improved. We have benefited from marketing spend efficiencies and scale in our global brands and we have reduced marketing spend in ready to drink to maintain the profitability of that segment. Overall we have delivered a further 70 basis points organic improvement in operating margin.”