Champagne Figures Highlight Weak Emerging Market Exposure (Western Europe Food and Drink Insight)

Champagne Figures Highlight Weak Emerging Market Exposure (Western Europe Food and Drink Insight): Two champagne producers have posted somewhat disappointing results for their latest financial years. For the 12 months to the end of December 2011 Lanson-BCC registered a 1.6% increase in revenues but a 7.7% decline in volumes. For the same period Vranken-Pommery Monopole registered a 6.8% fall in sales, to EUR339.6mn. These figures suggest that overall demand in the sector was muted during the year. Given the extreme weakness of 2009 (see chart), this is a disappointing result and suggests that the industry remains tied to the performance of developed markets and has not yet developed widespread emerging market