Diageo Struggles with Smirnoff, Succeeds with Ciroc

Dear Client: Diageo's US performance was "much stronger" in the second half than in the first half, during the fiscal year ended June 30. The year was marred by discounts and consumers trading down, but the company increased marketing spend and launched new innovations to compensate. They are also starting to see some improvements at the on-premise and with levels of discounting.Spirits volumes in North America declined -2% "driven mainly by lower volume in US spirits brands," which saw shipments