Britons are the most dedicated home-drinkers of the pandemic, Rémy Cointreau suggests

“Only the United Kingdom has really seen dynamic at-home consumption since the start of the pandemic,” Rémy Cointreau stated clearly today in a trading update.


On Friday the Paris-based company - maker of Rémy Martin cognac and Cointreau liqueur - was reporting how it had performed in the nine months to December 31.

In 2020, bars and restaurants faced repeated closures as the Covid pandemic saw lockdowns brought in at intervals around the world.  The drinks firm said that in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, despite “sequential improvement” towards the end of the year, the regions’ overall sales levels “continued to be hit hard by the closure of the on-trade”.

But in the UK, the company said it had registered people buying booze in a “dynamic” way since the first lockdown in April - suggesting that Britons consistently spent money on buying more of the French company’s high-end alcohol brands last year.

Rémy did make clear that Britons were not the only people in the world drinking more of their products while locked down at home, however.

The firm said that at-home drinking of its premium brands increased in the third quarter in America as more people drank from home, and that British, Australian and American drinkers helped the brand see a rise of just over 7% in liquors and spirits sales, despite the closure of many hospitality venues.  The UK saw “double digit growth” in sales in the segment in the period.

The update on British cognac-sipping habits came as the brand said on Friday that it is “confident in its ability to emerge stronger from the crisis”.