Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the EMEA LatAm Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker presentation there will be a question and answer I must advise you that this call is being recorded today on Tuesday, 1st December, 2020. And I would now like to hand the call over to your host today Julio Massey's Vice President, Financial Communications And Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon or good morning, ladies and gentlemen, depending on when you calling from and thank you very much for joining us for today's presentation on our EMEA LatAm business. We're hosted this afternoon by Jean Bogat, our Chairman and CEO for the region. Jean will take you through a brief presentation and then lead some time for your questions. Sheen, over to you.
Thank you, Julia. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm very happy to be with you remotely for our annual update on the Email Assam performance and key initiatives. Let's start with a few key figures for Ian and Adam, 51513 people, 57 market co affiliates regrouped in 11 management entities, 22 production sites, The region represents 28% of the group's sales, 63% of the net sales of the region come from the strategic international brands, and we had in the last employee satisfaction survey, I say 2019, a high engagement rate of 90%. As you can see, it's a large region.
Western Europe is 5 management entities, Central and Eastern Europe, 2 management entities together, they represent Europe, as compared to financial group financial communication. The difference is that you don't have France here and you don't have Ireland and travel retail. LatAm, 2 management entities, in the group's financial communication, it's included in the Americas and Africa, Middle East, 2 management entities, in the group communication, it's included in Asia, rest of the world. A summary of our strategic battleground as you know, we continue to drive our Transform and Accelerate roadmaps and our long term battlegrounds of our last strategic plan remain totally valid even post COVID-nineteen. We want to gain share in LatAm and Africa, Middle East, leveraging our weekly portfolio, absolutes and also in SSA, our mainstream whiskies, In Central And Eastern Europe, we want to consolidate our leadership in particular through the whisky portfolio.
And in Western Europe, we want to grow Genesys and Assalote and leverage the gene and operative opportunity. Obviously, everywhere, Almost we want to fast track the volume, the gin and tequila categories. You can see the fantastic gin portfolio we now have. We want to drive innovation as a key top line driver, to leverage our prestige portfolio And also, we're going to keep activating, managing activity, sorry, our portfolio and the free brands recently joined the portfolio for for the region, italycas, Kenobie, the gin, Japanese gin, and the Spanish vermouth, petronie. To do that, we have key enablers, that allows you to deliver that ambition, marketing transformation We want to be more consumer centric.
We have refocused our market companies on best in class marketing execution. We are creating a regional innovation hub and also a regional digital center of excellence. We want to keep accelerating in digital in all areas, in the commercial area first, with development of a data driven approach for our sales force, accelerates our development in the fast growing channel e commerce, keep enhancing our capabilities in revenue growth and promotional effectiveness And last but not least, we want to keep digitizing our back office and our SLOC And in terms of organization, we want to have a fit for purpose organization, many initiatives on that front, United, within the IT area, we now have this operational with 4 IT business solution hubs and 2 IT centers of excellence, one for front office, one for back office. Our organizations all over the world been evolving also to adapt to the new business environment and to the evolution of our priorities. And we kept also transforming our management entities, leveraging more expertise, efficiencies between the lead market and the smaller market and also developing mutual aviation.
And obviously, we have also started to implement our 2030, sustainability and responsibility, road map in the region. So a lot of transformation that the case also in the way we manage our talents. We actively manage our talent pool to deliver our ambition. And here you have the illustration of what happened in the management teams since March 20 with new CEOs for Northern Europe Southern Europe and Sub Saharan Africa and also close to 10 new MDs in our market costs. In terms of results, fiscal 2020 have really showed, has shown till COVID 19, the business acceleration, and since then a strong resilience.
And in fiscal 'twenty one, in Q1, we have an encouraging start of the year, even if the context remain challenging and heterogeneous. So you can see here the sequence of key figures, organic sales in fiscal 'twenty, we were down 5% due to the last quarter, slowly hits by COVID. In the first half, we were up 5% And in Q1, Peter, twenty twenty one, we are down 2%. So that's an encouraging start as we know that in summer, the century conditions were easing and we benefited also from the staycation phenomenon in Europe. From an operating profit standpoint for fiscal 2020, we posted within the EME LatAm a modest growth.
Despite the 5% decline on the sales, thanks to a strong and reactive resources management. After the COVID 19 started, in particular, on A and P and structure costs. And this led in fiscal 2020 to a very strong operating leverage that reflects the significant adjustments we've done on resources. So good figures and also good performance in terms of market share. We gain market share in most of our key markets.
We were doing so before COVID 19 started. We kept doing it after COVID 19 happened. You have here the main trends for MAT And as you can see, many categories and countries are in the green area. We can share in Spain in the on trade channel and in the off trade channel and despite very tough market conditions. In Germany, we we gained 90 basis points of market share, so very strong performance there.
In Italy, we lost in whisky, but we gained in vodka. Very strong performance also as for Germany in the UK and in Sweden. In Central And Eastern Europe, we were, flat in Russia in the last 12 months, but we're gaining in Q1 this year. And regain share in our key strategic battleground in Poland, the whisky category. In Africa, Middle East, we lost share in, in South Africa.
We were stable in whisky, but down in vodka, reconciliation our strong leadership in imported spirits in Turkey and in the LatAm area, we gained share in Mexico on premium plus imported spirits. And in Brazil, we lost share in whiskey. But we can share in the clear spirits Vodka and Premium Plus chain. So good financial performance and also a good market share evolution on most categories and most markets. So let's have a look at our strategic priorities.
Starting with our sustainability and the responsibility strategy, you know, well, you know, our group strategy and the commitments and the ambition for 2030. Obviously, the region is totally aligned with what is done at the group level with many initiatives in nurturing terawatt, in valuing people in Circular Making and responsible hosting. And with obviously the COVID context, even reinforcing, I would say, our initiative. So you have here a few examples of what we do. On the following slide, a zoom on some initiatives since COVID nineteen started in particular to support our bartenders partners and bartender community and also in a responsible hosting, zoom on our key group initiative responsible party that was done virtually this year, good vibes in tough times.
So let's have a look at the category by category. And I would say performance and initiatives, starting with our number one background in the region in the whisky battle. And the portfolio was very resilient across all geographies. We were down 4% last fiscal year, And the whisky offer was up 2% in Q1. You'll hear the performance on on our key brand, Valentine's, Jamieson, Chivas, and the Benitex.
As you can see on Valentine's, we've had a very performance in most of our key markets, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Poland, Poland, which is not far from reaching the threshold of 1,000,000 cases. We have a strongly bond on the brand also in Mexico. The brand has been suffering more in South Africa, to see with the mechanical in bands, the two band that we had to face. And also in Spain because of the strongest portion of the market to the entree. That said, we believe that we have a strong new platform, good innovation pipeline, and we expect, I would say, to improve that going forward in Spain.
Jefferson, that's the strongest gross engine in the region. As you can see, many market, many market doing very well, a double digit growth in countries like Germany, the UK, and Northern Europe, for instance, on Nigeria, in Russia, it was a very resilient last year. Q1 is start slower, but it's we are confident that things are should improve going forward. And in South Africa, the performance of the brand was negatively impacted by the alcohol ban. Sheelas, so we can see a good momentum in in Germany, in Poland, in Turkey, that Turkey is the 2nd largest market worldwide for Shiva 12.
And an acceleration in LatAm in Mexico and Brazil. And now that notice the Glendy that's doing very well. And Q1 shows double digit growth. And the whole map portfolio, by the way, is doing well. Benitez, but other brands like Adelaua also were special 80 months.
And, in many market that's the case, in particular, in Europe. Let's have a look now at the gin portfolio. As you know, we've been expanding and leveraging our diversified portfolio to see the category boom. Last year, sold in Spain, our net sales engine in the in the meantime were up 2%. And in Q1, select sold in Spain, it was up double digits We have a lot of initiatives, innovations, new brand joining the portfolio, new campaigns like the spirit of London, digital campaign.
Obviously, very happy to have the partnership on our Japanese Gina Kinobi And we keep developing MOCI 47. Inveroche is doing very well in South Africa and have the potential to grow in particular in SSA. And the last one of the last B brands that joined the portfolio, MACI, has a very, very strong start. I mean, it's one of the top 3 growth drivers in Q1 for the region. Aperitif is another very attractive category for us, and we reinforced our ambition in that segment, which is, very, very important for us.
With the so a growth of 41% last year and 40% in Q1. Obviously, we have one brand driving that performance, which is which is Lide, which is very, very strong in, in Germany, in particular and starting to grow in many other countries, in particular, in Europe. We also have italicus our Rosolio, the Bergamoto from the amaficos in the portfolio and the last brand that joined the Indian atom portfolio, the Spanish Vermutes from Galicia, Peyronie, that we're very happy to have in the portfolio. That's close to 20,000 cases. It's a premium brand.
And it has been growing even post COVID-nineteen. Innovation is another key growth driver for us in the region. It's playing a key role and it allowed us to be quite resilient at the top line level, both in Tier 20 and in the first quarter. It delivered last fiscal year an incremental top line growth of 1% on the top of the overall original top line growth and won 2%. You have here an illustration of the different initiatives or different innovations.
On Vipiter with different flavors, pink, blood orange and blackberry. And also on some of the brands like the launch of Atlantico Verde in, in Germany, the launch of Valentine's seven years old bourbon finish, in particular, in Poland, or the Chivas 13 Tequila finish that we launched in Mexico and more to come in H2. Let's have a look now at the performance of the key markets, starting with the Western Europe area. We keep having a strong dynamism in Germany and UK when Spain remains tough. As you know, Spain is a lot exposed to a, to entree.
It's more than half of the domestic markets. So we suffered obviously because of of limited on trade opening in the last months, but we can share both in off and on trade in that tough environments. In terms of highlights, obviously, the acquisition of Pitrony, and I think it's important to add new growth drivers to the portfolio. We also integrated in our portfolio, the wines that were distributed before by, a different pernod Ricard wine and tea. And so the 2 commercial organizations were merged last year.
And we also now have in the portfolio 100 pipers that used to be distributed by a third party player, and it will allow us to strengthen our risky portfolio strategy there. Germany and the UK have been very strong in the last 12 months, strong momentum before COVID nineteen's strong momentum after COVID nineteen started both from top line standpoint and also from a market share gains. On trade in both markets is only represents close to 10% of net sales. So it's strong organic exposure, and the auto diode being quite resilient and home consumption have been quite resilience. And on the top of it, we have a strong momentum, thanks to our popular strategy and our different brands initiatives.
You have here a few examples. The new campaign, on absolute since in our spirit, that was launched a few weeks ago in both the UK and Germany, very promising campaign to celebrate the importance of meaningful connections So that's something we do with the with 4 stars of the virtual reality. Actually, that has been launched in both markets and which is growing very fast. Lile, obviously, which is a key growth driver for Germany. It's another one contributor to growth.
And also Rana Dotte has had a very good start in fiscal 2021, helped by the launch of an innovation for an ADOTI, crema, which allows us to see new occasions of consumption. You also have the launch of the game event Caribbean reserve in the UK. And the UK had also very good performance of Genesys and of the one portfolio that has been growing double digit in the UK. Eastern And Central Europe, very resilient activity there, mainly driven by the whiskies. We were up last year 2% in both geographies and in Q1 down 2%.
So in Russia, our market share was flat last year after some drop in Q4. And in Q1, we are back to market share gains, thanks to some increased investment behind, in particular, our whisky portfolio Genesen, Valentine's and Chivas. And we start to leverage other growth drivers in particular the gin category with be feature. In Poland, we had a very good performance last year, and that's also the case in Q1. Thanks to the whole whisky portfolio.
Obviously, Ballantine is our number one brand there. But also Shiva and the candidates and also Genesis, which is growing very, very fast. And as for Russia, we also activate new growth relays, like the big picture. Africa, Middle East, We continue to have a very strong growth in Turkey. It was the case last fiscal year, despite COVID-nineteen, despite the economy crashes there.
It's still the case in Q1. We reinforce our leadership there, which is driven by our whisky portfolio. In particular Chivas and also a growing role of Ballantyne in the portfolio strategy. And we delivered that despite the collapse of international tourism and despite the economic crisis and showing the resilience and the loyalty also of our consumer basis. And in SSA, the context was very tough after COVID-nineteen started.
We had to face 2 successive alcohol bans, not in on trade, but also in off trade, The last one was 1 month for mid July to mid August. Since then things are starting to get better, the century environment is improving, and the whole region, we start to have some recovery. Many initiatives there, on Jefferson and Martell, Martell in Nigeria and also some Marketplace And E Commerce Initiatives through our partnership with junior. LATAM, last year was tough there because of COVID nineteen. Q1 is showing some rebound in our 2 key markets, Mexico and Brazil.
Whereas the smaller markets are still negatively impacted in Q1 in particular because of their indirect route to market that leads to some destocking that is still going on. In Mexico, we've had the an improved momentum as compared to the market trend, with Panorama, Mexico in the last 8 months, and we gained share. In today on the whiskey portfolio. You have here a few examples of different initiatives. We've been also very active on digital and on seeding the e commerce opportunities there.
In Brazil, We have the rebound in Q1, mainly driven by local brands that benefit from some measures to help local consumption. And Brazil has been a very smart in seating, also a new post COVID, you know, opportunities in particular leveraging the virtual community with the cloud bar. And also being a partner to the local master chef of drinks, which is called Barbato. So that's the conclusion, in fiscal 2020, we had this resilient performance and it's confirmed by an encouraging Q1. As you saw, we, we have the solid market share gains in most markets and and mostly categories.
We benefited in Q1 with century condition easing, during summer and also the Stacation phenomenon. In Europe, we had a good offer in resilience but on trade is still CVV down in Q1. The current context is difficult and very heterogeneous both from a market standpoint and also from a brand standpoint. And we expect the Q2 to be negatively impacted in Europe by the new entree restrictions due to a COVID-nineteen second wave sanitary measures. Most of them, starting in November.
We had a
clear strategic road map. We transformed an accelerated road map is still valid, even if we added a few inflections in terms of the channel strategy or to adapt to new expectations from consumers. We plan to continue to win the whisky battle innovation, gene and automotive remain our main growth relates. We want to keep to have an active portfolio management to continue to adapt our organization to the new environment and, last but not least, to keep having an active talent management with diversity and inclusion at the heart of it. And we believe we, at Panuica, Jim and Latam are well positioned to see the growth opportunities going forward in key markets.
While we'll still manage resources in an agile way.
Thank you very much.
And your first question comes from the line of Edward Mandier at Jefferies. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Good afternoon, Jill. Good afternoon, Julia. 3 from me. The first is looking through the crisis, What do you think is a reasonable growth algorithm for Europe? Do you think low single digit revenue growth is a reasonable place to be for this division?
Okay.
Sorry to jump in. The line wasn't clear. Did you say what is the reasonable growth algorithm? Is that what you were
Yes. What is a reasonable growth algorithm for Europe? Once the 3 d pandemic, on a medium term view, The second question is despite the volatility from COVID, you've gained market share in most of your key markets. What do you think are the 2 or 3 most impactful things that you're doing today that you weren't doing a few years ago that's helped your share performance? And then the 3rd question is on the fit for purpose, organization.
I think the Transform and Accelerate program was explicitly around margin expansion between fiscal 'nineteen 'twenty one. Can you talk about the longevity of this program? Is it going to run much beyond 'twenty one? And what are your aspirations, from a margin standpoint?
Yes, thank you for your questions. I think your first question was on the group algorithm. I think that in the presentation, we highlighted the growth that we had last year. For the full year, we were down 5%. In the first half, we were up 5%.
So let's say that the last underend trend line trend that we had pre COVID was a mid single digit top line growth. Obviously, the COVID had a strong negative impact in Q4 and in H2, we'll still have that impact obviously this year, in particular, in H1, but let's say that probably the performance we had in H1 fiscal 2020 is a good proxy of the underlying trend. We had pre COVID, then it's hard to assess underlying trend during COVID knowing that we have some markets which are growing at a good pace, some of us which are severely down. So it's very heterogeneous and that's I would say the best summary I can do of the current situation. In terms of market share, I think we can share in many markets, I think it didn't come by chance.
It's a consequence of everything we've done in the last few years on all topics, on on the portfolio strategy. And I think that we have rightly activated, new growth relays at the right time, which are now delivering the case of what we do in innovation. We have clearly speeded up our pace of innovation. We have also seized, ahead of time, the new consumer trends in new category in categories, that the case engine. And M and A has been a part of it and to see that opportunity.
That's the case of Lily, the operative wine that is having a very strong performance today, but this is something that we start to do in Germany, 6 or 7 years ago. So, that portfolio strategy is the fact that we are locating the resources at the right time behind the right opportunities is clearly paying off today. I think also that the very good work that we've done on our key brands in terms of brand platforms and in terms of execution and last week, execution has also paid off, for instance, on on the brand like JEMISAN in most markets as the brand is having a very good momentum. Not only in its strong historical markets like SSA or Russia, but also it's growing very fast in Western Europe, UK, Germany, and also in Poland. I would like also to highlight the rule Valentines in the whisky battleground, Valentine is growing very fast in our emerging markets, in LatAm in Poland, in Eastern Europe, in Turkey.
And it's also something that we started to accelerate 7, 6 or 7 years ago. So these are a few examples of what we've done. I would also like to enhance our execution capabilities the evolution of the organizations, I think the right strategy, you know, with the stronger expertise. So strong teams, a strong ways of working in execution. I think it allows to deliver that good market share performance.
And in terms of transform and accelerate, so this plan was shaped 3 years ago. And when you launch a new approach, a new strategy, It delivers results over the following years. So we start to just need to get results from that. I think that many battlegrounds of that plan are still valid today, in particular, the digital acceleration We started, obviously, to accelerate there, but there's still a lot to do, to become a true data driven company in the commercial area and in marketing parts, to help us to make, the right resource allocation to help our sales people to do, to improve further their execution. And here, I expect that the benefit of that digital transformation, and we'll still be seen in the years to come.
And just on the fit for purpose organization piece, Can you talk a little bit more broadly about, where you are in that journey and whether that sort of come to an end in fiscal 2021 or what will that run sort of beyond that period as well?
You know, an agile organization that needs to reinvent itself permanently, That said, I think that's a lot has been done in the last 2 years. We now have, you know, an IT organization, which is far more globalized. And it's now effective. We have leveraged our management entity all over the world to have a stronger sharing of expertise common teams for things like consumer insights or digital studios some finance, some synergies in back office for finance for a supply chain between those markets. And, and I think that, a large part of what we plan to do, has been done last year and is being done now.
So, most of the transformation of our an evolution of our organizations has been done in the last 2 years.
And your next question comes from the line of Travis Sterling at Bernstein. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, Gille and Julia, thank you very much for the presentation. Three questions from my side as well, please. First one, Gille, I'm intrigued you as part of Transform and Accelerate becoming more consumer centric is part of the program, in what way was the organization not consumer centric before, how do you think the organization is actually changing? A little bit more granularity there would be very helpful. Same thing.
I think you mentioned that MALFI was the number 3 contributor to growth the region. I'm just wondering what the other 2 were. And the third question, as part of fit for purpose, I presume this involves a lot more standardization of ERP system as Pernod Ricard, do you now have a global ERP system or is it regional systems? Thank you for your questions. I mean, first on consumer centricity, I wouldn't say that we were not consumer centric.
We want to be more, consumer centric. And in particular leveraging data, as I said before, and starting with consumer data. And for instance, we created 1 year ago, the global consumer insight organization, which allows us to have a better understanding of new consumer trends to be able to make the, I would say, the right business decisions. And I think this is a move that we've done. We decided to create a regional innovation hub which will, which will allow to, to be closer to consumers, identify the new trends starting with the markets and then work together with the brand companies on the innovation pipeline.
So here, the starting point will be to see the new trend that we have in the market. Our new S and R strategy is also starting with the consumer from buying a brand to buying into a brand, and that's definitely something that we do more and more, in developing our brand strategies and brand campaign. So that's what we mean in being more consumer centric. In terms of growth drivers for the region, you're right. I mentioned, Marlene, in the top 3, since the beginning of the year, Lyle and Jensen.
Are the 2 other leading brands. And Maske and Chile were not in the portfolio 10 years ago. We show the importance of betting behind the right gross release at the right time. And in terms of the fit for purpose organization and evolution of IT and so on. No, it's not just a matter of ERPs.
I think we tend to have, you know, a GGA towards ERPs in in most countries. We don't have necessarily the same corridor everywhere. But with the new IT organization that we have, whenever we deploy a new IT solution, whether it is SFA 1 or any other, I would say, apps that we want to deploy in our market course. We now do it in an industrial way, at the regional level, at the group level, which allows to have far more commonalities and to be quicker in deploying, I would say, new apps, which are adapted to the new needs And, you know, today with the new technologies, with the API, you know, technical solutions, Now you can link apps between each other, even if you have a history of different ERPs. So I think that's something that today we can manage very efficiently.
And more importantly, we have today a 90 organization, which is organized in a way that it can be a a very efficient enabler for the group transformation going forward.
Your next question comes from the line of Sanjay Ojelez, Credit Suisse. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
Hi, Jill. Three questions from me also, please. Firstly, on wine, would you say the wine portfolio is strategically more important than in the past for the organization in a post COVID world? Secondly, can you just talk a little bit more about e commerce what sort of acceleration have you seen there? How significant is e commerce now in recent months for your business in Western Europe versus the year before.
And then just coming back to stock levels, can you just comment on stock levels, particularly across your emerging markets. You spoke a little bit about LatAm seeing some stocking maybe a little bit in Russia as well, but love to get a sense of what depletions are doing versus stock levels in those markets. Thank you.
Well, on wine, I don't know if it's more important. I know it's doing better and fast food matches. At the end of the day, it's doing better because I think that in the last 2 years, we've done in the group, very good work in improving performance in adjusting the organization, to be more efficient, to be quicker at innovating to have a more fluid relationship between the brand company and the market goes. And this very good work, I think, is paying off today. It's fair to say that in the COVID times, in some countries, one has been particularly resilient also, and that's because in particular the case in the UK.
I think it's a combination of the, a good portfolio strategy and a good, an improved execution in wine as much as the COVID-nineteen trends favoring trend. So why is, and I think I had the same question. Last year, wine, I think, is quite a good complement to our street portfolio, in particular, in some management entities like the UK, Northern Europe, and also Spain when we enjoy a good Spanish wine portfolio. E commerce, that's definitely a channel on which we have accelerated a lot partly because this channel was boosted by the covenant in context, but also because I think we've done the right things in terms of ways of working, in terms of elevating our skills, and investing more in that channel with different, you know, trackers now. The e retail, the big marketplaces, the on demand with some agreements with companies like Global or Rappi in in Africa, as you know, we have a partnership with Jumia.
And we also have our own marketplace, drinks and co that has, you know, become more important after the successive acquisitions of Evinium, and Body Boca. So we have a large, diversified e commerce ecosystem, and it's delivering because I think on average our sales have been multiplied by 2 in the last 12 months. It's not across the board because some Countries are more advanced than others in the region, very clearly UK, Germany, soft LatAm, are the most promising countries for us in terms of e commerce. We are also accelerating a lot in North LatAm, and also in, in Algeria, even if the share of e commerce in Nigeria in Italy in Southern Europe is a bit slower. It's still little developed in, in Eastern Europe, by the way, is not legal in Russia for spirits and in the Middle East.
But UK, Germany, LatAm and Africa are definitely two areas where we are accelerating. And we believe that we can share in E Commerce in the last 12 months in most of the geographies. And in terms of stocks levels, To make it short and simple, I believe that today, that probably at normal levels. Let's say that the level of inventories has been different from one market to another one depending on the structure of the market, whether the route to market is direct or indirect and also that of the timing of the peak of the pandemic And that's why because LatAm has been impacted a bit later than others, this is the region where we still have some destocking in, in Q1, in particular, in smaller markets, where we had worked with 3rd party distributors that, you know, have not ordered a lot since the beginning of the year, but things are getting more nominalize now.
Your next question comes from the line of Olivia Nuclearier at Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.
I've got three questions, if I may. First, on Spain, obviously, you said it's a big entree market. I was just wondering if you had any idea of what about the what you think about the pace of recovery over the next few years? And do you think the on trade channel would be permanently weaker going forward in Spain. Second question is regarding cognac for the region.
And obviously, your region is very wide. So I was just wondering if perhaps you could give us a bit of what your view is on cognac potential in Africa, Middle East and perhaps as well in Europe. Was a MAPFEL brand. And just lastly, it's more actually a question on your Slide 19, regarding Turkey, you mentioned that organic sales growth was strong. I was just wondering if it's just purely, pricing to asset innovation.
Or is there any volumes growth as well there? Thank you.
Thank you, Banjo. Your first question was on paid, I think you're right to say that it's a large on trade market and more than half of the domestic market is on trade. But also a market where the border business is important and is also impacted by the ability of people to travel. The entree today is still suffering a lot because there are many centric constraints. It's not totally close.
It's It's a different situation province by province. It's closed in some provinces. It's opened in others, but very often with some a very strict timing and a number of seats, restrictions You know, looking at Spain, the last big crisis was in 2000 and 8, 9, And at that time, the on trade was very heavily hits. Many outlets closed and were not pre opened, but all the outlets reopened afterwards and the consumption came back because it's really part of the culture there. It's part of people in Spain.
They tend to go out with friends and with families to the restaurants. They don't have the habit to, host at home. Now that's something that could evolve potentially with the current crisis, but we definitely believe that on trade is really a strong part of the of the Spanish culture. There was a clear improvement in July, August, during the summer, fast improvements, it's unfortunately got worse after that because the COVID-nineteen to hit again. But we are confident that when the pandemic starts to be behind us, this channel should grow again.
Again, maybe with some on trend outlets, new ones that could reopen. Manual also with some stronger day consumption as opposed to night consumption because it's true that the nights clubs have been a lot impacted by the current crisis. And we have started to see, ahead of the COVID 19 crisis, a gradual shift towards more day consumption. And that's something that we have and we have anticipated with our portfolio strategy, I think the acquisition of Petroni, Vermon, the operative is totally in decline. The innovation that you are going to see on the Spanish market are also growing in that, in that direction.
So It could take time, but, when the pump dynamics is behind us, I think it could just accelerate within a few months. In terms of cognac, it's fair to say that in Manhattan, it's not the largest region for Martell, it's more about Chinese Asia, travel retail and the U. S. Nevertheless, we have a few markets which are very attractive, you know, in terms of size and gross potential for for Marcell and for Cognac. The first one being Nigeria.
It's a it's a Martell is growing very fast there. It's a EUR 200,000,000 in Habitant Country, whose population is growing very, very quickly, very influenced by the U. S. And that's definitely a very promising there and we invest clearly behind Martell to aggressively grow the brand there. We are the market leader also in Mexico, and that's another market, which is attractive to us.
Obviously, in all sense for the America and the Caribbean, as with the importance of U. S. Tourism, even if it's a bit less strong at the time being, it is very definitely also a gross potential part of the prestige portfolio. And I would also like to add Russia. There is a strong brand consumption habit there and Marcela as a potential to grow there.
And then UK and Northern Europe are also attractive markets. But here, we are we see very, very careful about the pricing strategy there. Turkey or Turkey has had a great performance in the last 3 months and in the last 12 months also, very, very resilient. So despite the collapse of tourism, despite the subdued on trade, thanks to a very strong resilience of the traditional off trade business. So we, we, and this growth is coming both from volumes gross, and pricing.
It's really a combination of the 2. It's set to sell it in Turkey. We partly benefited from some transfers from travel retail, because the travel retail being almost new there. There was some of the volumes which were recaptured back on the domestic market. We happen to have a very loyal and the resilience consumer basis in Turkey, and we speak about maybe 4,000,000, 5,000,000 people with high accretive power.
And which who can who can keep consuming the spikes the local currency devaluation. And that's something we've seen, Kelly, in the last 18 months. So, so very strong growth there, coming from pricing, but also very clearly from a from volume growth. And market share gains.
Sure. The final question comes from the line of Simon Hughes at Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Thanks, Yale. Thanks, Julia. Just a couple of quick ones for me, please. I wanted to, can you talk a little bit more about maybe tequila portfolio and how that's been developing, how the Mascala and the tequila portfolio is being rolled out, the opportunities you perhaps see across your geographies. And maybe linked to that, what are you seeing in terms of agave prices at the moment so that you can say about how they are starting to trend?
And then secondly, I know obviously you've been doing a very good job in terms of the market share gains we've seen across a number of your regions and countries. For a while. How much do you think over the last sort of 6 to 12 months on the back of the COVID pandemic? How much some of the share gains that you've seen you think have come from, the sort of independence, the craft sector, and big brands just resonating more with consumers. Do you think that's driven a step up in your share growth or is it something else?
So Simon, this is Julia. The line wasn't rate. Can I just rephrase the second question? You were asking the share gains. How much came from the craft or smaller brands and big brands winning?
Is that Was that the question?
Yes. It was just to get a feel, Julifer, obviously, you've probably gained share from your big competitors but also craft and smaller independents have been under pressure, you know, under COVID. So as that also being a bigger contributor, to some of the share gain of late. And I suppose the underlying question is how much of the recent share gains do you think you can really hang on to post the pandemic?
Okay. Thank you, Simon, for your question. The first one on the tequila and mezcal portfolio. So I think it's more a question on on the brand company that we call House of Tequila, which, you're right, is part of the Evin LatAm. Even if the by far number one market is, of the U.
S. Obviously. And our taking a portfolio been doing very well in the last 12 months, even post pandemics with strong growth on brands like Adione on Altos and also at the higher end of Redara for 4, and another woman's car brand, Delma Gaye. So there is clearly a very strong demand there in the, in the, in the U. S.
We've been able to, to seal that growth putting in place the right portfolio strategy, you know, with the Redava 34 being the prestigious brand, Avian, the Super Premium 1, and Atos being the premise the premium 1, the last brand being Olmeca which is mainly sold in Europe, in particular, in Russia or Turkey. And very exposed to the night channel. So Olmeca has suffered because of that exposure, but, the 3 year of the brands are very opposed to the U. S. Have had a very, very good performance, following trend that we see on the category in the in the U.
S. So that's definitely a strategic priority for us. Obviously, we expect the in the years to come, the profitability to improve, not only through strong pricing, but also through normalization of the cost of agave. We've been waiting for that for many years, we today believe that, you know, the price of agave should pretty plateau in the next couple of years before going down plateauing around 30, 32 pesos, a kilo. It's safe to say that the strong resilience of the tequila category in the last 12 months is probably delaying a little bit the decrease of the price of Agave, but we are confident that the midterm, it should clearly happen.
And your second question on the share gain, I think it's in reality it's coming from a large spectrum of brands. Both premium blockbuster brands that very clearly have been quite resilient during that that crisis. I think consumers look for safe also choices and brands like Gemerson, Ballantyne, Chivas, absolutely. In the in Europe have been particularly resilience, but we also have some specialty brands that have been, that have had a very strong performance and our specialty brands in the middle of time have grown at a quicker pace than the rest of the portfolio. Driven by brands like Lile, Mafi, also our specialty malte brands, Glenibet is doing well, but see more brands are also doing quite well.
So I think that here, it's a combination of of premium blockbuster brand and also a specialty brand that allowed us to gain share. Our intent is to keep gaining share, doing a good job on our portfolio strategy on our brand platforms. On our last receipt execution during COVID-nineteen, the fact that we have a strong portfolio and a strong distribution network has helped, but that momentum, we already had it before. So that's our intent to keep, you know, getting share on our key brands in the future.
This brings our call to close. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Thank you very much, Jean. Have a good afternoon or morning, if you're calling us from Kemoka.
That does conclude the conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may all disconnect.