H1 2026: group revenue up 7.1%. Alcoholic beverages operating income down 24.6%.
Suntory has walked away from a £150 million maturation facility in East Ayrshire.
Sit with that before reading anything else in the half-year. A maturation warehouse is not a marketing decision or a cost line. It is a bet on how much Scotch the world will want in the late 2030s, placed in concrete today. Brown spirits businesses commit capital eight to fifteen years ahead of the demand they are serving. Cancelling the building is the plainest statement a distiller can make about that demand.
Everything else in the release reads differently once you hold that decision first. The destocking language. The reconfirmed guidance. The segment splits. All of it.
The Least Profitable Division Is Now the Spirits Division
Start with the group. Revenue including liquor tax reached ¥1,733.2 billion, up 7.1% year-on-year. Excluding liquor tax it rose 6.5% to ¥1,550.6 billion. Group operating income fell 2.6% to ¥126.3 billion. Adjusted operating income, stripping non-recurring items, fell 8.9% to ¥129.1 billion. Net profit attributable to owners dropped 19.2% to ¥48.2 billion.
