Diageo announces interim results
Diageo, the world’s largest premium alcoholic drinks company, has announced its interim results for the six months ended December 31, 2012
The key results are:
Diageo CEO, Paul S Walsh, said: "These results reflect the global strength of our strategic brands, our leadership in the US spirits market and our increasing presence in the fastest growing markets of the world. Our expanding reach to emerging middle class consumers in faster growing markets was the key driver of our volume growth, while net sales growth was driven by our pricing strategy and premiumisation, especially in the US. This drove gross margin expansion, which together with our continued focus on operating efficiencies, delivered operating margin improvement.
“This is a strong set of results, confirming our medium term guidance and supporting our decision to increase the interim dividend by 9%," said Walsh.