Champagne producer Lanson-BCC has decided not to release full-year financial forecasts following a significant hit to first-half revenues.
In a statement, the Champagne Boizel maison owner said it predicted "a better level of activity" in the second half of the year but had decided not to publish full-year expectations in light of "an uncertain economic and political context".
In the six months to the end of June, the group saw its revenues drop 19.5% year on year to €87.8m ($97.8m).
Gross profit fell12.7% to €50.4m, while EBITDA slumped 29.3% to €16.5m, attributed to lower volumes "particularly for exports". Net income was down 67.9% to €3.71m.
The share of Lanson-BCC's sales generated in export markets fell 3.9 percentage points to make up 56.8% of total revenues. The shift, the business said, was "primarily" due to lower product shipments to the UK, Japan and Germany. It also pointed to the "stagnation" of shipments to the US and Australia due to excess stock.
In its outlook for the rest of the year, Lanson-BCC said its latest results "cannot be extrapolated over the full year", given "the strong seasonality of Champagne sales".
The company said it was "still firmly committed to its long-term development strategy focused on value".
Lanson-BCC added its plan "to further strengthen its position in the high-end wines segment is still one of its core priorities".
It added: "This approach is particularly crucial faced with the continued increase in grape prices and the rapid rise in the cost of stock financing."
The Maison Burtin producer will release its revenues for its 2024 fiscal year on 30 January 2025.
Other Champagne majors have also seen revenues suffer so far this year. In July, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton's revenues from its wines-and-spirits unit dropped 9% organically on 2023 to €2.8bn ($3bn), while profit from recurring operations was down 26% to €777m.
In a call with analysts at the time, CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony noted the company had seen "a severe demand issue in Champagne”.
He added: "Champagne is quite linked with celebration, happiness…maybe the current global situation, be it geopolitical or macroeconomic, does not lead people to cheer up and to open bottles of Champagne, I don’t really know. The fact of the matter is that our volumes are down double digit.
“We understand that we are not the only one. Far from that, I mean the whole industry is under severe pressure, particularly in Europe where the bulk of the volumes takes place.”
