UPDATE 1-Remy Cointreau sees 15 pct drop in FY profit

* Sees drop of around 15 pct in FY current operating profit

* Sees significantly lower impact on published net profit

* 9-month sales fall 4.2 pct to 604.5 million euros

(Adds detail)

PARIS, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Remy Cointreau (RCOP.PA) said the global economic slowdown, the resulting destocking by wholesalers and costs to reorganise its distribution network would send full-year recurring operating profit down 15 percent.

France's second largest wine and spirits group added on Thursday that these headwinds would have a "significantly lower impact" on its net profit for fiscal 2008/09.

"For the future, the group aims to recover the growth in organic profitability, resuming the positive trend of the past four years," the company said in a statement.

Remy Cointreau said sales in the first nine months of the fiscal year fell 4.2 percent to 604.5 million euros ($779.7 million).

Sales of champagne, including the Piper-Heidsieck and Charles Heidsieck brands, declined 6.5 percent, the group said.

"The U.S had a difficult year end, whereas the situation was quite different across Europe: sales in France and Benelux were not offset by the better performances in Germany and the UK," Remy Cointreau said, referring to its champagne business.

Overall, destocking by wholesalers occurred in particular in the U.S. and Russia, the company said, adding that China and southeast Asia saw growth.

(Reporting by James Regan, editing by Marcel Michelson)