Wine Maker’s Sales Slip While US Shift Bites Profit

Treasury Wine Estates saw its money coming in drop a lot last year. The total sales fell about thirteen percent to roughly 2.56 billion Australian dollars. That is down from 2.94 billion the year before. The number of wine cases shipped also slipped, going from 21.3 million to 19.2 million. Each case brought in a bit less money, about 133.60 Australian dollars instead of the previous amount. Because of these changes, the profit before certain costs fell more than a third. At the same time, the bottom line turned into a large loss of about 1.08 billion Australian dollars, compared with a profit of 436.8 million the year before, mainly due to U.S. asset write‑downs and restructuring costs.

The Americas part of the business felt the hit hardest. It made up about thirty‑eight percent of total sales but only contributed around nineteen percent of operating profit. Sales there dropped twenty percent to about 974 million Australian dollars, and shipments fell fourteen percent to 5.9 million cases. The operating profit in that region fell sixty‑five percent to roughly 109 million Australian dollars. Meanwhile, other regions like Greater China kept much higher profit margins.

Inside the United States, the company shipped fewer cases but saw stores and restaurants buying a little more from distributors. The prior year had shipped about four hundred thousand extra cases that never reached sellers, and the firm bought back about 100 million Australian dollars of wine after a wholesaler left California, later reselling part of it. To fix the mismatch, the firm plans to cut the size of North Coast vineyard batches starting with the 2026 vintage. Inventory of wine decreased a little to 2.31 billion Australian dollars, and net debt sits at 1.78 billion Australian dollars, which is about 2.8 times the underlying earnings. Looking ahead, the firm expects its operating profit for the next year to be at least as good as this year’s as it continues to rebalance stock and run its Ascent program.

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