For the full year, Remy Cointreau said it expected another year of strong organic sales, including normalization of consumption trends in the second half after two outstanding years.

"Taking into account the impact of phasing effects on sales trends and marketing and communication investments, the improvement in full year current operating margin will be primarily driven by the first half," said Remy.

Sales for the three months to September 30 came in at 457.2 million euros ($451.4 million), marking a like-for-like rise of 16.2% which beat analysts' expectations for 14.3% growth.

Cognac sales alone reached 345.9 million euros, a like-for-like rise of 15.6%, which notably reflected a very strong performance in China during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Remy Cointreau's fiscal year starts on April 1 and ends on March 31.

($1 = 1.0129 euros)

(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)