金巴利集团CEO：投资组合精简将于2027年底前完成

Following its latest divestitures across rum, Tequila and Cognac, Campari Group plans to end its portfolio streamlining by the end of the year, CEO Simon Hunt said.

Campari Group's sales in the six months ending 30 June 2026 were €1.51 billion (US$1.73bn), up 2.7% organically on the previous year. Speaking to analysts after the first half (H1) of its 2026 results, CEO Simon Hunt said: “We are the only listed spirits player now with five consecutive quarters of organic top-line growth.” Hunt also confirmed its full-year 2026 guidance of 3% organic growth. "We are gaining share in 95% of our markets," he said. "We’re doubling down on the key priority brands, and the results on the sell out are clear.” Notably, the group revealed it had entered negotiations with ‘a French private industry player’ to sell Bellonnie et Bourdillon Successeurs, which covers Campari’s agricole rum portfolio in Martinique with Trois Rivières and Maison La Mauny. During the call, Hunt said the company had previously needed these brands to “open up new markets”, but that is “no longer the case.” Campari purchased the agricole rum brands in 2019 in a deal valued at €60 million (US$66m). Hunt explained that the initial acquisition was made to "support the route to market in France", however "at the same time, their margins are elusive, cash intensive, and with very limited upside to growth within our portfolio". Last week, the group also confirmed a deal to sell Bisquit & Dubouché Cognac and Cabo Wabo Tequila to Dublin-based Cobblestone Brands. These followed the sales of more than 10 brands and businesses (4% of its portfolio) over the past 18 months as part of a streamlining initiative to concentrate on its key strategic brands. “By the end of 2026, we are planning on coming to the end of our portfolio streamlining,” Hunt said. Aperol steals share from beer The Italian company's apéritif portfolio was highlighted as a bright spot for the group during H1, led by Aperol with 3.3% growth, while Sarti Rosa also grew by 8.8%. Campari Group's ‘other apéritifs’ stable, which includes Rosa alongside Crodino, Campari Soda, Picon and Cynar, rose by 8.5% in H1. For Aperol, the year so far has seen the brand take on new formats in an effort to broaden the Aperol Spritz, a move that Hunt noted has seen “strong initial results". In its home market of Italy, an on-tap format for Aperol reached around 1.5% volume share of premium beer in just three months, which Hunt said is “exactly the profit pool we want to penetrate further”. “That’s a massive amount and a real step forward for the brand,” he told investors. “Suddenly we’re starting to broaden what is already a very established ritual in Italy into new occasions we couldn’t get in before.” The on-tap format was trialed last summer in select locations, and Hunt pointed out its success at a recent Bad Bunny concert in Milan, where 22,000 Aperol Spritzes were sold in one night to a “very dynamic" audience of legal-drinking-age consumers. “Previously, we would’ve sold zero,” Hunt emphasised. Campari Group's sales in the US, meanwhile, were up by 1.5%, driven by Aperol and Espolòn Tequila’s “strong on-trade performances”. Aperol’s growth was attributed to “early benefits of increased investments", which included a bigger presence at music festival Coachella in April and the 21 new brand activators placed in the on-trade across four US states. Sarti Rosa was rolled out in the US in June in time for summer as well. Hunt noted that stores were limiting customers to a one- or two-bottle purchase, and there was social media buzz on TikTok for the brand. Campari Group will focus on the on-premise to build Sarti in the US. "That’s very much where the brand lives," Hunt said. The group’s sales in the UK were up by 4.3% in H1, driven by double-digit growth in the apéritif portfolio, according to the company. The canned Aperol Spritz To Go launched in April, with Hunt saying the ready-to-drink (RTD) product has had "strong early traction”. “At the BST [British Summer Time] festival in Hyde Park, over two weeks [27 June-12 July], we sold 65,000 cans of Aperol Spritz in a format that we wouldn’t be able to do previously,” he noted. The canned Aperol Spritz has also now launched in Belgium, Austria and global travel retail (GTR). Hunt said the idea is simple: “Making Aperol accessible in occasions where we’re not able to play in the past”. “Towards the end of the year, we’re also planning to launch a glass-to-go alternative for some select markets like Brazil, which, similarly to tap, can be an on-premise alternative to offset local constraints, like the lack of Prosecco in Brazil,” he added. 'Hugo Spritz not branded like Aperol' When asked about taking on other Spritz challengers for Aperol, Hunt reminded: “This is our category. We invented it, right?” “We have Mondoro [an elderflower apéritif] doing very well in Europe, playing in the Hugo Spritz category, “ he noted. “Hugo Spritz is not branded like Aperol, like Sarti, and as a result, consumers are very happy for us to be able to come in and offer a great-tasting Hugo Spritz at a more competitive price point.” He said: “As consumers work through the Spritz, and as you see in other categories, different flavours appeal to different consumers. “We are uniquely positioned to be able to take someone from a tropical, blood orange, passionfruit Sarti into a more bitter Aperol, into a more bitter Campari, and into a very bitter Cynar, with all the flavours that run through that. “We continue to see the trade recognise that and want to work with us, and from that point of view, it will be more a combination of doing what we do well and just reconfirming our leadership in the category we created.” Courvoisier to avoid RTDs as Hennessy enters category Campari Group's House of Cognac & Champagne division was up 8.3% in H1, with Courvoisier results listed; up 4.2% in H1 and by 9.1% in the second quarter (Q2), covering April to June. Cognac-based Grand Marnier liqueur was also up by 5%, although from an ‘easy comparison base’. Campari completed its Courvoisier purchase from Suntory Global Spirits in May 2024 and integrated the brand’s financial results from May 2025. Courvoisier found success in developing markets, driven by Eastern Europe, South Africa and Asia Pacific, while results in the US were said to have stabilised despite Cognac’s challenges there. Hunt was asked if Campari Group had interest in RTDs for Cognac, considering one of its ‘big competitors’ had entered the subcategory earlier in the summer. LVMH-owned Hennessy Cognac launched its first RTDs in June,  a range of large-format bottled cocktails. Hunt said: “We’re not planning to get into ready-to-drink Cognac. That’s all I’ll say at this stage.” Espolòn becomes second-largest premium Tequila in US Tequila brand Espolòn was up 8.2% for the half-year, and by 9.9% organically for Q2. Espolòn saw high single-digit growth in both its blanco and reposado, while performing strongly in the US on-trade, where it is a priority brand for Campari. The brand was also placed on more than 7,000 on-trade menus, "double the original target", Hunt noted, with a further push coming from its Short King Week campaign starring comedian Ken Jeong and activations during the men's Fifa World Cup tournament, which took place over June and July. Australia is also a big market for Espolòn, where it posted double-digit H1 growth. “Espolón in 2015 was the fourth-largest premium [Tequila] brand in the US, and now as of 2025, it is the number two, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19% between 2022 and 2025,” Hunt said. “Looking at the year-to-date sellout data in 2026, we see this trend continuing in the Nielsen off-premise with Espolón one of only four growing top 10 brands.” Hunt also noted that Espolón was outperforming Tequila in ‘key battleground’ states of California, Texas, Florida and New York. “In NABCA [US control states], we have gained 70-plus bps market share and are the only top 10 growing brand with a 12% growth,” he said. When asked why Espolòn might be outperforming its Tequila contemporaries, Hunt said in response that "the key thing is really just focusing on what we do well.” This would be building distribution and securing placements on on-trade menus, which has been built up over the last 10-15 years. “We ended up targeting twice as many menus as we’d originally set out, we got significantly more displays heading to Cinco de Mayo [5 May], and we've got good trade support behind the brand,” he explained, noting that “bartenders love serving Espolòn”. He also highlighted how the ‘quality-first’ positioning has helped it for those who are both trading up to premium and trading down from super-premium. “It’s really good Tequila and at a fair price, and I think both the trade and the consumers see that,” he said. Hunt added that the brand doesn’t focus on its 'additive-free' status and bartenders enjoy the brand’s irreverent side, such as its Cocktail Fights campaign. “It pokes a bit of fun at how serious the rest of the world is on this, and I think people feel that,” Hunt said. Additionally, the brand has launched a small-format 200ml bottle, and an Extra Añejo in the US. Of the 200ml bottle, the brand’s smallest format to date, Hunt said it has "seen a strong pickup” since its launch in June, and more is expected with "additional innovations to come in this segment of the market”. “Smaller pack formats are the main growing part of the Tequila category today in the US with 3% growth in smaller than 375ml versus a 4% decline for the overall category year to date,” he said. For the Extra Añejo, priced at US$70, Hunt added it “cements the brand’s accessible premium status with one of the most affordable and frankly delicious Extra Añejo offerings on the market”. Regarding pricing pressure in the US, the CEO noted: “In certain categories, we’re seeing it more than others. At this stage we’re not seeing the read across in terms of really impacting our performance on Espolòn”. Overall with Espolòn, Hunt said: ‘We’ve got the right price strategy. We’re well-positioned in the consumer’s eyes and the trade’s eyes as a good-quality Tequila with a good value proposition.”