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Financial profile · FY2026

A cash-generative branded drinks business with resilient underlying margins and episodic reported earnings shocks

Across the multi-year record, Diageo combines historically substantial operating margins with recurring free cash generation and relatively modest capital spending. Exceptional impairments and restructuring can, however, materially distort reported earnings.

What is developing

The latest year brought softer sales and sharply lower reported profit, largely reflecting exceptional impairment and restructuring charges, while operating profit before exceptional items improved. This points to a meaningful reported-earnings disruption, not clear evidence that the underlying margin and cash-generating model has changed.

What matters next

Whether operating profit before exceptional items holds up as restructuring charges give way to the planned savings.

USD
Metric FY2017 FY2018 FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 FY2023 FY2024 FY2025 FY2026
12.1B 12.2B 12.9B 11.8B 16.4B 20.9B 20.6B 20.3B 20.2B
(4.7B) (4.6B) (4.9B) (4.7B) (6.5B) (8.1B) (8.3B) (8.1B) (8.1B) (8B)
7.4B 7.5B 8B 7.1B 9.9B 12.8B 12.3B 12.2B 12.2B 11.7B
(3.8B) (3.7B) (3.9B) (3.5B) (5.1B) (6.3B) (6B) (6.3B) (7.8B) (8.5B)
(1.8B) (1.9B) (2B) (1.8B) (2.8B) (3.7B) (3.7B) (3.7B) (3.7B) (3.2B)
(2B) (1.8B) (1.8B) (1.7B) (2.3B) (2.7B) (2.3B) (2.6B) (4.2B) (5.3B)
3.6B 3.8B 4.1B 3.6B 4.8B 6.5B 6.3B 5.9B 4.3B
15m 86m 74m (45m) (25.7m) 83.9m (260m) (451m) (328m) (344m)
571.6m 531.5m 618.4m 661.1m 625.5m 631.4m 907m 1.1B 761m 793m
(22m) (128m) 61m (1.5B) (1.3m) (594.2m) (402m) (14m) (162m) (1m)
— — — — — — — — — 3m
(35m) (37m) (16m) (26m) (24.4m) (44.7m) (9m) (20m) (308m) (250m)
3.6B 3.7B 4.2B 2B 4.8B 5.9B 5.6B 5.5B 3.5B 2.6B
(732m) (950m) (898m) (589m) (1.2B) (1.4B) (1.2B) (1.3B) (999m) (606m)
2.8B 2.8B 3.3B 1.5B 3.6B 4.5B 4.5B 4.2B 2.5B 2B
(110m) (122m) (177m) (45m) (178.7m) (120.5m) (34m) (296m) (184m) (221m)
2.7B 3B 3.2B 1.4B 3.4B 4.4B 4.4B 3.9B 2.4B
1.05 1.21 1.30 0.60 1.46 1.89 1.96 1.73 1.06