Diageo leads race into emerging markets

Guinness brewer Diageo is leading the race into emerging markets as it serves drinkers from Moscow to Mumbai.

While Diageo has been snapping up producers of baijiu, cachaca and raki in China, Brazil and Turkey to drive sales in the world’s fastest growing economies, French rival Pernod Ricard is hamstrung by massive debts taken on four years ago to buy Absolut vodka.

Diageo’s next goal is a firmer grip on the world’s biggest tequila producer, Jose Cuervo, which would provide important access to the emerging Mexican spirits market and complement its Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka brands.