Following strike action by Hennessy workers last week, the LVMH-owned brand has halted its controversial plan to ship bulk Cognac to China for bottling.
In October, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said it would impose provisional anti-dumping duties against imports of European brandy in retaliation to the EU approving additional duties of up to 35% on Chinese electric vehicles.
To circumvent the tariffs, Hennessy said it would trial shipping its liquid to China and bottle it locally, starting with 1,000 litres of its VSOP Cognac on 15 December. If the test was found to be successful, Hennessy said it would relocate the whole VSOP bottling line to China, accounting for 600,000 cases of the Cognac, or all of its 2025 China sales.
Almost half of Hennessy’s workers went on strike last week to protest the move, which has now resulted in the halting of the plan.
According to Mathieu Devers, a Hennessy technician and employee representative, the company told unions and employee representatives on Monday (25 November) that it had dropped the plan after a meeting between French president Emmanuel Macron and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Brazil last week, which has allowed talks on the issue to resume.
China is the second-largest export market for Cognac after the United States and the industry’s most profitable territory, accounting for US$1.7 billion in exports last year.
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Author: Georgie Collins
