Pernod Ricard is banking on a taste for higher priced spirits in the United States and India, along with recovering demand for cognac in China, to speed up sales growth, its new boss told Reuters.

The owner of Absolut vodka, Martell cognac and Jameson whiskey wants to overtake Britain's Diageo one day to become the world's biggest spirits company, and acquisitions could play a part, Alexandre Ricard said in an interview.

"Our medium-term goal is to return to our historical average (sales) growth rates," said Ricard, who became chairman and chief executive in February, putting the founding family back in charge of day-to-day management for the first time since 2008.

In slides available on its website, Pernod Ricard said it was aiming to accelerate underlying sales and operating profit growth to between 4 percent and 5 percent in the medium term.

Its target is for sales to rise by close to a mid-single digit percentage in the United States and a high-single digit percentage in China.

It is four decades since the company, which hosts an investor day on Tuesday, was formed from the merger of French family businesses Pernod and Ricard, renowned for their aniseed-flavoured pastis spirits.

A family business in 1975, it has since transformed into a global giant with annual sales of 8 billion euros. But after years of robust growth, Pernod Ricard faces challenges in two key markets: China and the United States.

Ricard, 43, the grandson of the company's founder, has made sales growth a top priority.

In China, the group's No. 2 market after the United States, economic growth is slowing and a government clamp down on extravagant spending has hurt demand for premium spirits.

In the United States, Pernod Ricard's largest brand, Absolut vodka, is struggling as trendy drinkers turn to brown spirits such as bourbon and niche vodka brands like Texas-based Tito's Handmade Vodka. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie