Interview, Part 1: Melanie Batchelor, Managing Director, Campari America

Campari Group recently posted sales up 11% organically to €2.9 billion ($3.2b) in its fiscal year through December, boosted by strong gains from its aperitif, Tequila, and Bourbon brands. Adjusted EBITDA rose 16% to €729 million ($791m) for the year. In the U.S., Campari’s largest market, sales grew 10% in 2023 and 13% in the fourth quarter, driven by Espolòn Tequila, aperitifs Aperol and Campari, Russell’s Reserve Bourbon, and Appleton Estate rum, while Grand Marnier liqueur returned to growth later in the year. SND executive editor Daniel Marsteller spoke with Campari America managing director Melanie Batchelor for an update.

SND: After a challenging year for beverage alcohol in 2023, how does the business environment look from Campari’s view so far this year?

Batchelor: We closed with 10% value growth in the U.S. business. We’ve been bucking the trends, really driven by a couple of brands. Aperol is one brand that we’ve focused heavily on brand-building now for many years, but also we’re seeing it tapping into a couple of consumer trends. Daytime drinking is one of those, but also the movement toward consumers seeking low-alcohol cocktails. We’re seeing very nice growth on Aperol and continue to feel very optimistic that there’s still a lot of upside in terms of its growth in the U.S.

The other brand that really drove our performance last year was Espolòn. The spirits category overall has been quite soft, but Tequila is the shining star and continuing to grow. We’ve invested a lot in brand-building on Espolòn, and it’s at a sweet spot from a pricing perspective. We’ve also ramped up a huge amount on production capacity. We’ve made significant investments in our plant in the last few years, and that capacity has enabled us to accelerate the brand. So yes, while there are a few headwinds, we continue to feel pretty optimistic about 2024.

SND: The Campari brand also plays in the aperitivo occasion alongside Aperol. How’s progress there?

Batchelor: Campari also fits in that daytime drinking occasion, but growth in the U.S. has really been driven by the Negroni. That’s a cocktail that we’ve been very single-minded about developing and growing off the back of Campari for the last 10 years. In fact, the original brand strategy for Campari in the U.S. was ‘Campari equals Negroni and Negroni equals Campari.’ But in the last couple of years we’ve also been involved in quite a few spectacular experiential campaigns. Most recently we were the official spirit of the SAG Awards, and the brand has been integrated with the cinema scene globally for some time.

We still feel there’s a lot of opportunity for Campari to grow given the popularity of the Negroni, but also we’re starting to see the Campari Spritz gaining traction. We think that’s going to unlock new occasions for the brand and continue to fuel growth in the coming years.

SND: Grand Marnier is another well-known brand, which joined the portfolio via acquisition. How are growth prospects?

Batchelor: Grand Marnier is a really iconic brand. We’ve been doing a lot of work to strengthen its foundations, such as on the packaging, and we’ve launched some premium innovations like Louis Alexandre. We continue to see a big opportunity. It’s grounded in the upside around the Grand Margarita, with the Margarita being the top-selling cocktail in the U.S. Grand Marnier being 51% Cognac really does elevate that Margarita occasion. That’s going to be core to our strategy to continue building the brand.

SND: Campari has recently made large acquisitions in both whiskey with Wilderness Trail and Cognac with Courvoisier. What are your plans for those brands moving forward?

Batchelor: On Courvoisier, we haven’t yet closed the acquisition. It’s going through the late stages, but we’ll wait to comment on it until we close the deal. Wilderness Trail is an interesting brand with unique positioning. It’s still a very small brand in the U.S., but it has a lot of potential and helps round out our whiskey portfolio. Wilderness Trail offers an opportunity to appeal to different consumers than we do with Wild Turkey, and we’re going to be making significant brand-building investments on it this year.

Tagged : Aperol, Campari, Courvoisier, Espolón, Grand Marnier, Wild Turkey, Wilderness Trail

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