LVMH Spirits Sales Rise 5% on Chinese New Year Boost

LVMH’s spirits division began 2026 with a modest lift in organic sales, helped by the timing of Chinese New Year and a better quarter for Cognac, even as reported revenue in the business continued to fall.

The Paris-based luxury group said spirits sales rose 5% on an organic basis in the first quarter, after a steep decline in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the division totaled €610 million, or about $719.3 million, down from €629 million, or about $741.6 million, a year earlier. On a reported basis, wine and spirits revenue fell 2%, as currency movements cut sales by 7%.

LVMH said the later timing of Chinese New Year in 2026 helped Hennessy Cognac in the quarter. The holiday began on Feb. 17, and the company said that calendar shift supported sales in travel retail and other channels. LVMH also ran pop-up events and activations tied to the holiday and introduced a Hennessy Year of the Fire Horse collection.

The improvement came after a difficult comparison. In the first quarter of 2025, LVMH’s spirits arm had plunged 17%, weighed down by weak demand for Cognac in both the United States and China. For all of 2025, wine and spirits revenue fell 5%.

The company said demand remained soft in the United States this year, but that stronger performance in Asia helped offset some of that weakness. Asia excluding Japan, LVMH’s largest market, rose 7% in the quarter and accounted for 32% of total revenue. The United States, its second-largest region with 23% of sales, grew 3%.

LVMH’s wine and spirits division also includes Belvedere vodka, American whiskey SirDavis, Scotch whiskies Glenmorangie and Ardbeg, Volcan De Mi Tierra tequila and Eminente rum. The company said Champagne also had a good start to the year, with organic revenue up 5% to €663 million.

Overall group sales rose 1% organically to €19.1 billion in the quarter. In a statement on the results, LVMH said it remained “vigilant yet confident” despite what it described as a geopolitical and economic environment disrupted by conflict in the Middle East, and said it would continue investing in its brands and distribution network.