Rémy Cointreau’s “RC Forward” Plan: An Offensive Growth Strategy

Facing three difficult years marked by high tariffs and shifting demand, Rémy Cointreau has launched an aggressive three-year turnaround called “RC Forward”. CEO Franck Marilly emphasizes that the Group must “stand out within its industry” by leveraging its “exceptional portfolio of brands” and talented teams. The stated goal is clear: improve profitability and generate new resources to reinvest in growth. The plan specifically aims to create value internally so the company is “less dependent on macroeconomic cycles”. In practice, this means responding to the tough market environment – which saw sales dip organically by 18% in FY2024-25 – with bold structural and strategic changes.

The backdrop is sobering: Rémy’s key cognac and liqueur brands suffered double-digit declines in recent quarters as US tariffs and China’s anti-dumping duties crushed demand. In 2024-25, group sales fell 17.5% (–18.0% on an organic basis). Cognac (70% of sales) was hardest hit, with a 21.9% organic sales decline. This was exacerbated by Chinese “anti-dumping” taxes of 38.1% on cognac imports, and US tariffs of 20% on EU spirits. Although a mid-2025 US–EU tariff deal reduced some levies, Remy still warns of a €30 million drag on profits from trade barriers. In short, a once-booming post-pandemic premium-spirit demand has reversed – a reality echoing across the industry – and Remy’s longtime markets, especially China, remain weak.

Strategic Goals of RC Forward. To fight back, Rémy’s management has outlined five interconnected “strategic levers”. These are intended to bend the cost curve and sharpen growth engines so the company can invest in its brands again. They consist of:

• Distribution efficiency. Rémy will refine its route-to-market strategies to expand its reach into under-served channels and geographies. In practical terms, this could mean new partnerships or direct-to-market initiatives in high-potential regions. For brand owners, this underscores the industry trend toward channel diversification – including e‑commerce, travel retail, and localized distribution – to capture shifting consumer demand.
• Revenue Growth Management. The company plans to optimize pricing, product mix, packaging and promotions to extract more value from each sale. In other words, products and prices will be closely aligned with consumer segments and willingness to pay. This reflects a broader push in spirits to use data-driven pricing and SKU rationalization (e.g. focusing on high-margin formats, premium variants and targeted promotions) as competitors do worldwide.
• Marketing and Investment Impact. Rémy will reallocate advertising and media spend to the places that drive the greatest brand desirability and sales uplift. With marketing budgets under scrutiny, the emphasis is on ROI-driven marketing – investing in campaigns and channels (digital, social, experiential, etc.) that strengthen the core brands most efficiently. CMO-level readers will note that better media-mix optimization and brand segmentation can significantly boost effectiveness.
• Procurement and Cost Optimization. The plan targets leaner sourcing and spending across both direct inputs (like grapes, oak and packaging) and indirect costs (services, logistics, etc.). By negotiating better deals and standardizing purchasing, the company frees up resources for growth. In practice, this mirrors trends in all consumer goods where cost-of-goods is falling under pressure. Leading spirits groups have similarly centralized supply chains and bulk-buying to reduce volatility in costs.
• Organizational Simplification. Finally, Rémy will streamline its structure and processes. This means clarifying decision rights, eliminating unnecessary layers, and instilling a stronger performance culture. For example, the plan establishes a new steering committee (see below) and creates dedicated “labs” for innovation and execution. The company explicitly wants to build on its culture while adding “discipline, rigor and performance focus”. In short, decisions will be made faster, with clear accountability, so the business can pivot more quickly to market changes.

Rémy Cointreau has committed to reporting progress on these five levers when it publishes its annual results on June 4, 2026. Analysts and investors see the roadmap as confirming market expectations for greater operational discipline and clarity. The European broker Jefferies notes that the plan “instills a more pragmatic approach to balancing premiumization with product accessibility, generate cost savings to fund reinvestment, and overhaul the organization to accelerate decision-making”. That said, other observers point out that RC Forward so far sets out qualitative ambitions more than hard targets – meaning measurable results will be the acid test for credibility.

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Leadership Reshuffle and Governance

Supporting the strategic levers, Rémy Cointreau has restructured its top team. A Steering Committee has been created (embedded within the Executive Committee) to drive RC Forward. Key appointments include:

• Luca Marotta (formerly CFO) is promoted to Deputy Chief Executive Officer, also still overseeing Finance, IT and Legal. This indicates finance will be closely tied to strategy execution.
• Ian McLernon is named Group Chief Markets Officer. He will oversee all regional markets, including a new “Emerging Markets” subdivision. This signals a renewed focus on growing in markets like India, Africa or Southeast Asia.
• Mélanie Bulourde becomes Group Chief Operations & CSR Officer and Clarisse Petit is Group CHRO. These roles underline that operational excellence and sustainability (CSR) are now strategic priorities alongside people development.
• A permanent Group Chief Brands Officer will be appointed later; in the interim, CEO Marilly himself covers brand strategy. This suggests the CEO wants hands-on oversight of brand positioning as the company turns around.
• The Executive Committee also gains a Prestige Division (for Louis XIII, Telmont, Maison Psyché) led by Ludovic du Plessis, and a Chief Transformation Officer role (filled by Célia d’Everlange) to manage the change program.
• Other members include business-unit CEOs (e.g. for Liqueurs & Spirits, Whisky & Gin, Asia) and the recently appointed US & Canada CEO (Christophe de Pous).

Finally, two new cross-functional “laboratories” report directly to the CEO: an Innovation Lab (led by Douglas Taylor) to analyze consumer trends and fuel product innovation, and an Executive Lab (led by Sophie Phe) focused on accelerating execution of transformation initiatives. These labs institutionalize ideas “to foster innovation and improve practices” while keeping an end-consumer lens.

In sum, the governance changes flatten the structure and align leadership roles with the new priorities of RC Forward. For example, elevating the CFO to Deputy CEO suggests a tighter link between financial management and strategic planning. Creating a markets officer and an emerging-markets team shows the company is chasing global growth pockets. And giving defined roles for operations, CSR, and an interim brand chief highlights the areas (efficiency, ESG, marketing) that will get executive focus.

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Industry Context and Strategic Implications

Rémy Cointreau’s overhaul reflects broader trends in premium spirits. After a prolonged boom, the industry now faces bifurcated demand: mainstream RTDs and affordable spirits are still growing (particularly in on-premise and new markets), while some ultra-premium categories like cognac have cooled in major markets. Meanwhile, macro issues (inflation, tourism shifts) and geopolitical trade policies have squeezed margins. In this environment, large spirits houses are emphasizing profitable growth over volume growth, and precision marketing over broad campaigns.

For brand owners and marketing leaders, the lesson is that vigilance and agility are essential. The distribution lever, for example, is a call to action: brands should diversify channels and geographies, seeking underexploited segments (e.g. high-net-worth consumers in travel retail, online shoppers, or emerging markets). Optimizing the route-to-market might involve more direct control of key accounts or e‑commerce platforms, as global groups are doing to improve margins.

The revenue management lever signals that pricing discipline is non-negotiable. Premium brands must justify their price ladders with clear value or rarity – otherwise they risk accelerated discounting and mix dilution. Marketing leaders should therefore invest in systems (analytics, AI pricing) that tie promotions to ROI and avoid “bleeding margin” through poorly targeted discounts. Similarly, portfolio pruning – focusing on best-sellers and discontinuing weak SKUs – can sharpen both pricing power and supply-chain efficiency.

Rémy’s focus on marketing spend efficiency also mirrors industry practice. The most successful brands today use data to allocate advertising dollars to campaigns and channels that directly drive sales. For example, digital campaigns can be precisely targeted to demographics that buy premium spirits, and success measured via metrics (e.g. engagement, conversion) rather than vanity stats. As Jefferies commented, Rémy’s plan aims to invest “where [marketing] generates the greatest desirability and value”. Brand teams should take note: better media-mix modeling and brand health tracking will be required to feed this disciplined approach.

On procurement, the lesson is straightforward: rising costs of glass, wood and agave (for tequila products) are industry-wide challenges. Rémy’s plan to reduce procurement costs suggests negotiating global contracts, standardizing materials, or even reshoring key inputs. This can free up cash to invest in brand-building. Many conglomerates now centralize sourcing functions to drive savings; smaller brands might consider partnerships or consortium buying to achieve similar scale.

Perhaps most interesting is the organizational simplification. Rémy clearly wants to emulate the nimbleness of smaller craft distillers (“entrepreneurial and conquering mindset”) while retaining corporate strengths. This means empowering cross-functional teams to make fast decisions and removing bureaucratic delays. The creation of the Executive Lab to speed up rollouts underscores the need for urgency: companies must get from planning to execution quickly or lose time. For CMOs, this implies working in cross-department “squads” with supply chain, finance and digital so that marketing initiatives can be approved and launched in weeks, not months.

Importantly, analysts note that RC Forward so far sets out few concrete targets. This qualitatively heavy plan places a premium on execution. In practice, brand leaders should focus on measurable KPIs – e.g. margin improvement from a pricing change, or incremental sales from a new distribution channel – to demonstrate progress. Rémy will report three-year value-creation ambitions in mid-2026. Stakeholders (and other CEOs) will watch whether the five levers translate into tangible improvements in organic growth and margins as promised.

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Key Takeaways for Brand Owners and CMOs

• Align distribution with strategy. Assess whether current routes (traditional wholesalers, importers, online partners, etc.) optimally reach your target consumers. Consider direct-to-consumer initiatives or selective partnerships (e.g. luxury retailers or on-premise chains) for flagship brands. Rémy’s push on distribution is a reminder that coverage and channel mix should support premium positioning and growth goals.
• Get smart on pricing and promotions. Use granular analytics to segment customers by price sensitivity and tailor pricing or pack formats accordingly. Avoid blanket discounting that erodes brand equity. For example, data-driven revenue management can identify which SKUs or pack sizes are underperforming. Remy’s example of refining “products, formats and promotions” suggests allocating promotions where they generate true incremental volume, not just offloading excess stock.
• Maximize marketing ROI. Scrutinize every marketing spend: shift budgets toward high-impact activations (such as experiential events for ultra-premium spirits or influencer campaigns in growth markets). Use multi-touch attribution to determine which channels (social media, search, in-store sampling, etc.) deliver the best cost-per-acquisition. Remy’s strategy to “better allocate brand and media investments” underscores that even iconic brands must justify their marketing ROI in a tighter environment.
• Lean procurement and operations. Conduct a thorough review of the cost base. Negotiate long-term contracts with suppliers (grapes, neutral spirit, barrels) to lock in prices, or explore alternative materials. Streamlining packaging design (e.g. reducing weight or complexity) can yield savings. As Remy’s plan notes, cutting procurement costs “unlocks resources in support of growth” – an approach all alcohol companies would do well to emulate amid inflation.
• Flatten and focus your organization. Empower regional teams and product groups with clear mandates and KPIs. Consider forming small “skunkworks” teams to pilot new products or digital initiatives (the idea behind Remy’s Innovation and Executive Labs). Encourage an entrepreneurial mindset but balance it with accountability – for instance, tie a portion of compensation to key transformation milestones (speed of new launch, margin improvements, etc.), as Remy is doing through its performance-focus rhetoric.
• Balance premiumization with accessibility. An important nuance from analysts (Jefferies) is balancing the pursuit of ultra-premium image with broader market access. For instance, Remy must decide how much to invest in rare, high-price offerings versus entry-level variants. Brand owners should segment their portfolios accordingly: maintain aspirational super-premium lines for brand halo, while ensuring enough accessible SKUs to sustain base volume and attract new consumers.
• Monitor macro factors but drive internal momentum. Lastly, recognize that while you can’t control trade policies or macro cycles, you can build resilience. Remy’s stated aim is to “generate our own value creation momentum” independent of cycles. For marketing and corporate strategy teams, this means scenario-planning for volatility (e.g. having contingency spend plans) and maintaining agility (e.g. quickly shifting focus between markets). Ensure you gather continuous market intelligence so that when conditions change (as tariffs did), the company can pivot strategies without losing momentum.

Rémy Cointreau’s RC Forward plan is a case study in refocusing a premium spirits portfolio under pressure. By systematically tackling distribution, pricing, marketing efficiency, procurement and organizational agility, the company seeks to reclaim growth while shoring up profitability. For brand owners and marketing executives, the underlying message is clear: in today’s volatile market, deliberate internal transformation (not just new products) is often required to unlock future growth. Embracing data-driven revenue management, lean operations and swift decision-making – as Rémy is committing to – can position any spirits brand to better weather headwinds and seize new opportunities.