Pernod Ricard sees 11% sales jump

Drinks company Pernod Ricard has seen an 11% jump in sales for the first nine months of the 2010/11 financial year (1 July 2010 to 31 March 2011).

Sales (excluding tax and duties) totalled €5.9bn compared to €5.3bn for the same period in the previous year.

The company put the sales spike down to organic growth of 7%, in line with the first half of the financial year, a 7% positive foreign exchange effect, primarily due to the appreciation of the US dollar and a 3% negative group structure impact, primarily due to the disposal of certain Scandinavian, Spanish and New Zealand assets.

Pernod Ricard boss Pierre Pringuet said: "(The result) strengthens our confidence in our ability to meet our targets: organic growth in profit from recurring operations of close to +7% for the full 2010/11 financial year."