Currency fluctuations had also moved against the company

Currency fluctuations had also moved against the company.Sales of Passoa, a passion fruit liqueur launched seven years ago, were growing strongly with sales up 30 per cent on last year.In the six months to June, group operating profits fell from Fr394m to Fr216m. Local action was particularly strong in Scandinavia and Germany, as well as in Japan However, sales in Britain had not been affected. Sales had also been disrupted by the recent strikes in Paris though this had not been serious.While sales of cognac fell, champagne sales were up by 30 per cent in the period Liqueur, wine and spirit sales were almost 10 per cent up. However, group profits were lower as the margins on champagnes and wines are slimmer. Among the possible last-minute defence strategies, the company was believed to be discussing the sale of one or more “trophy” hotels and to be holding out for a higher offer from Whitbread for its restaurants and budget hotels businesses, which the brewer has contracted to buy for pounds 1.05bn if the Granada bid fails.Analysts said a higher bid would be hard to achieve, as Whitbread would have to convince its shareholders that a premium offer made sense.Yesterday’s dawn raid had been expected to accompany the unveiling of Granada’s increased offer last week, but failed to materialise.

None more astonishing, however, than yesterday’s leader in the London Evening Standard. Since this presumably reflects the view from inside the crumbling walls of fortress Forte, it bears some repeating.Granada’s bid is described as a piece of “commercial vandalism”. Its purpose is characterised as self-aggrandisement by Gerry Robinson, Granada’s boss, while the outcome, the newspaper laments, will be decided by a small group of rich City professionals (the Carol Galleys of this world) with only the short-term financial interests of their clients at heart. What’s good for British catering industry goes by the board while there is not a scintilla of evidence to suggest that a Granada takeover will benefit hotel guests or motorway service users.What tosh.

The idea of Forte as lone defender of standards in British catering and hotel keeping is as ludicrous as it is mistaken. Why even the City and Business Editor of the Independent can produce a better fry- up than Little Chef. But even if you happen to like Forte’s particular style of food and beds, as many apparently do, nobody could surely support the idea of Forte being afforded some kind of special protection from those evil money men in the City. The UK was performing steadily.The company also said that the French government’s controversial nuclear tests in the Pacific Rim last year had led to local boycotts that dented sales of its champagnes and wines. Sales had fallen sharply in China, though sales of champagnes such as Krug and Pieper Heidsieck had increased. Remy Cointreau’s joint managing director, Marc Heriar Dubreuil, said: “You can tell the mood of a country by how much cognac it drinks.”Countries such as Vietnam, Korea and Russia were in a good mood, he said, while spirits (and sales) were deflated in France and Germany. The company lost market share to other cognac producers which cut prices or kept them constant.However, Remy said rival producers were increasing prices and Remy Martin was beginning to claw back the lost ground.

The company also announced plans to reduce its Fr8.8bn (pounds 1.15bn) debt mountain to Fr6bn by converting debt into equity stakes.
Reporting figures for the nine months between April and December, the company said sales of cognac were 10 per cent down on the same period last year after the company introduced a price rise in July. NIGEL COPE

Remy Cointreau, the French drinks group, reported a fall in operating profits yesterday as a result of lower sales of its Remy Martin brand of cognac and the effects of currency fluctuations. These results are likely to be particularly awful as they will be wrecked by asset write-downs. The company is in talks to sell its red meat business which supply meat to supermarkets and to the catering trade. These divisions accounted for 80 per cent of Sims’s pounds 285m sales. Their disposal will leave the company with only its manufacturing operation which makes beefburgers and sausages. These are higher-margin sectors but, in the current food environment, hardly likely to yield high growth.Analysts’ forecasts range from a pounds 1m operating loss to a pounds 1m operating profit for the year to March, though the pre-tax figures is expected to be a heavy loss.