Speaking at the Pernod Ricard F16 briefing yesterday, the chief financial officer said the company’s mid-term objective is to stablise the brand and increase media investment.

“It is not easy to change,” Bogaert said. “Vodka is a very competitive category and there are price pressures at play. Absolut is one of the largest vodkas in the US and in the world but we have not done enough to push the authenticity of the brand.

“We have reduced the number of flavours because there were too many and our objective, going forwards, is to have fewer flavours.”

Bogaert said Pernod’s luxury vodka Elyx was growing "in line" with plans and the company is “on track”. He insisted Pernod have a “comprehensive” plan in place to combat Absolut sales decline and was encouraged that volume loses had slowed. “Absolut volumes were down -4% the year before but it is only -2% now”, the CFO said.