Diageo sales slump by 6% In Last Quarter

[John]

I thought i would post this for those of you interested in the business and investment side of whisky.

Diageo has given more bad news to its investors, revealing a 6% slump in underlying sales in the last quarter.

After the announcement ahead of the company's AGM, shares in Johnnie Walker whisky, Smirnoff vodka and Guinness fell almost 5%.

Diageo admitted that the performance for the three months to the end of September, the companies first fiscal quarter, was poor compared with the same period last year.

"As we anticipated, consumer trends across our markets remain broadly unchanged since the year-end," said chief executive Paul Walsh.

But Diageo achieved its goal of growing underlying operating profits by a low single digit percentage for the current financial year, after already cutting that target twice this year.
Representatives of workers at Diageo's Kilmarnock and Port Dundas plants, where 900 jobs are to be lost, protested outside the AGM.


John