When the world's leading brewer returns to volume growth - a development for which it would be premature to celebrate, as we wrote earlier this week in AB InBev's situation remains questionable - the entire sector suddenly catches fire.
When Campari disappointed the market this morning with its quarterly results - despite being present in the sector's few trendy segments - all its peers suffer, albeit to a lesser extent than the company itself, whose shares are posting a double-digit decline on the Milan Stock Exchange.
Eighteen months ago, we wrote that both Campari and its anchor shareholder were demonstrating a remarkable sense of timing.
Indeed, in a repeat of its bourbon breakthrough during the subprime crisis, the group acquired Courvoisier amidst a rout in the cognac sector, simultaneously securing a prime bridgehead in the US.
Added to this was the astute maneuver by the Garavoglia family, who in August 2023 - at the peak - made arrangements to sell up to half of their stake without losing control, then, in September 2024 - at the trough - announced their intention to reinvest.
Sell high, buy low: both Campari and the Garavoglia family have embraced the old stockmarket saying.
That being said, the Courvoisier acquisition has so far only had a limited impact on growth, as the Italian spirits group's revenue has stagnated for three years. Meanwhile, its profitability remains a clear notch below peers such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Brown-Forman, even though it has similar solvency ratios.
It should nevertheless be noted that Campari has managed to double its revenue and EPS over the last decade, a performance that none of its three peers has managed to match. On this subject, also see, Pernod Ricard's valuation still a long way from worst-case scenario.
In this respect, the "top of the class" valuation still enjoyed by the Italian group - with the stock trading at a multiple of thirteen times EBITDA - compared to 12x for Brown-Forman, 11x for Diageo, and 10x for Pernod - is not entirely undeserved.
