European Spirits May 2026: The Comps Did the Work. Campari Did the Rest.
The headline improved. The underlying trend did not. Here is what the NielsenIQ data actually says.
The four-week European spirits read to 17th May looks better on the surface. Industry sales fell just -0.6%, against -4.7% the prior month. Volume decline narrowed to -0.9% from -5.4%. Easy wins all round.
Not quite. Almost all of that improvement came from the calendar. Year-ago comparisons were nearly 970 basis points softer than the prior period. The industry did not find its footing. It walked into easier maths.
