Spirits are not as high as they were among Diageo’s investors. The lockdown sales boom in its core North American market has cooled more rapidly than expected.
A miss stateside dented the drinks group’s top level, where it announced organic sales growth of 9.4 per cent for the final six months of last year, ahead of the 7.9 per cent pencilled in by analysts. In the United States and Canada, which account for more than a third of group revenue, sales growth was about half the rate the market had been hoping for at only 3 per cent ahead of the same period in 2021.
Greater caution is reflected in Diageo’s market valuation. Its shares trade at 20 times forward sales, down from a
