Decanter World Wine AwardsLVMH: Champagne in short supply
- Friday 4 February 2011
Announcing 19% growth in wine and spirit revenues to €3.26bn during 2010, LVMH chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said prestige cuvees including Dom Perignon and Krug had been the star performers.
‘We found ourselves in a situation where supply and availability becomes short,’ Arnault told analysts in a conference call. ‘You may remember that back in 2009 all the papers said that it was a Champagne crisis.
‘[Moet Hennessy president] Monsieur [Christophe] Navarre would come and see me and say “we have all this inventory – what should we do with all the bottles?”.
‘Some other companies were dumping their stock; we decided to buy more. But we didn’t buy enough and now with the recovery and resumption of the market, we found ourselves short.’
Champagne’s last two harvests have been restricted by generic body the CIVC (Comite Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne), out of fears of a continuing oversupply crisis and tumbling prices.
Meanwhile, Arnault distanced himself from buying the Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck Champagne brands, which were put up for sale by owner Remy Cointreau late last year.
Asked about the company’s intentions, he replied: ‘Yes, we looked at that – but no more.’
Arnault also reflected on the buoyancy of the market for fine Bordeaux, contrasting the price paid for a bottle of Chateau Cheval Blanc in 1998 - €60 – with the 2009 vintage’s typical price-tag of €600.
Have your say!
Sunny Brown
February 08 15:01
This is after they lowered the availability of luxury cuvees over the last two years and raised the prices in a terrible recession to make the brands more "exclusive" (LVMH's words). Now that the economy is returning they are putting pressure on with scarcity? I am sure another price hike will come with that as well. I have gotten to the point where I don't believe anything that comes from the PR machine that is LVMH anymore.
Tipsy
February 08 14:58
In short supply - good spin, more like hopefully it will scare the Asian market in buying all stocks and the prices will rocket like Bordeaux wines have - failing that I can see a chinese lucky symbol on the bottles arriving imminently.
Paul
February 08 08:46
Krug sales decreased in 2009 with 70%. 1,2 mln bottles of DP were shipped back from USA in the same year. Easy to have an increase on your sales. This article is just to create a surtain feeling.
Tomas Eriksson
February 07 13:51
As far as I can see, there is not one single figure in this article that specifies sales or stock of Champagne. If supplies are beginning to run dry, wouldn't they have concrete numbers to back up that claim?