Diageo's New CEO Ivan Menezes Talks This Year's Results (DEO)

is the largest producer of spirits in the world, with their brands sold in over 180 countries. The whiskey brands Crown Royal and Johnnie Walker, the vodka Smirnoff and the whiskey and cream liqueur Bailey's are all on their roster. They're also famous for producing the beer Guinness. CEO Ivan Menezes, who just started the job earlier this month on July 1, discussed the company's results for the year on CNBC's Squawk Box Wednesday morning. Menezes cited the United States for helping boost their results because of high demand for high-end spirits "Overall results were strong, both in North America and the emerging markets, and we expanded margins and delivered good cash flow. North America is a real engine of growth for us. This market has great characteristics for premium spirits brands, and as you saw, we grow our total sales five percent, we grew our profits 9 percent, strong margin expansion, and it was driven by the performance of our top-end, our reserve brands," said Menezes. "These would be brands above Johnnie Walker Black Label, are growing double-digit. Crown Royal grew 17 percent…Now this is happening because the demographics and the economic conditions in the U.S. are very positive for our category. We see spirits taking share of average alcohol on a sustained basis."

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He put simply that "Americans want to drink better into cocktails, and want better experiences," in reference to the culture around drinking in the U.S. and the multicultural demographics around it. Menezes also included that it helps their business to have a million Americans turning 21 each year. Menezes did note slowdowns for Diageo in emerging markets, including Brazil, Nigeria, India, and China, but he sees strength in other emerging markets like Mexico and Thailand. "We've traditionally grown double digits in the emerging markets. The prior two years would've been 14-15 percent. This last year, even with those down drops, we've grown at 11 percent, and we've grown profits there at 18 percent," said Menezes. Europe is a "mixed picture" for Diageo, where in Spain, Italy and Greece there have been huge declines due to economic woes. In Germany, however, they're growing by double-digits, said Menezes.