LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has said it is “impossible” to manage where products are sold by third-party distributors amid a report the group’s Champagne continues to be sold in Russia.
In a statement sent to Just Drinks, the company said: “Moët Hennessy markets its wines and spirits worldwide, relying either on its own subsidiaries or on a network of indirect distributors who then handle the commercialisation to end customers.
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“Some distributors have export activities. It is therefore impossible for Moët Hennessy to control the final destination of a product marketed by a distributor but Moët Hennessy and its partners scrupulously comply with the laws, rules and international sanctions in force on products marketed wherever they operate.”
The comments were in response to a report from the French investigative news outlet La Lettre yesterday (14 January), which indicated LVMH’s Champagne was being sold into Russia through US duty-free distributors, labelling them as “special orders”.
In its statement, LVMH stressed its Moët Hennessy division in Russia, which carried out “direct imports” was closed shut following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Earlier this month, it was announced Moscow had taken control of the Russian side of a joint venture between brewing majors Anheuser-Busch InBev and Anadolu Efes.
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By GlobalDataAccording to statements from both brewers, the Russian government has put the local assets of the AB InBev Efes business “under temporary management”.
According to a government decree, viewed by Bloomberg and Reuters, shares in the Russian part of the joint venture have been handed over to a local group of companies called Vmeste.
Both Anadolu Efes and AB InBev said they would continue to work together to address the matter.
Meanwhile, in December, Carlsberg agreed to sell Baltika Breweries, its business in Russia, marking the Danish brewer’s exit from the country.
Moscow seized Carlsberg’s stake in Baltika Breweries in July 2023, placing the assets under the “temporary management” of government property agency Rosimushchestvo. Carlsberg, which in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine had said it would leave Russia, had been in the process of selling the business.
