French spirits group Pernod Ricard expects sales to improve gradually this financial year in its main market of the US and in Europe.
But the world's second biggest spirits group, which owns Irish Distillers, said that China, where sales fell 9% in the past three months, remained difficult.
It said a resilient Europe and robust sales in the US where Jameson Whiskey did well, helped it achieve a 3% rise in underlying sales for the first quarter to the end of September, beating market expectations.
The owner of Mumm champagne and Absolut vodka said sales in China, which makes 9% of group sales, were hit by wholesaler de-stocking and a slowdown in the less expensive Noblige cognac.
Like its global rivals, Pernod has also been hit by a Chinese government crackdown on luxury gift-giving and personal spending by civil servants, as well as by slowing economic growth in its second-biggest market.
Pernod's comments on China contrasted with those of Remy Cointreau and LVMH's Moet Hennessy spirits division last week, who had said cognac demand in China was improving slightly.
Pernod today forecast growth in underlying profit from recurring operations of between 1-3% for the year ending June 2016. That would compare with profit growth of 2% achieved in its 2014/15 fiscal year.
For the first quarter ended September 30, Pernod reported sales of €2.223 billion, a like-for-like rise of 3%.
The company-compiled average of analysts' estimates was for underlying sales growth of 1.1% in the quarter.
