Published on: June 11, 2014

A year of transition

Distil (previously known as Blavod Wine and Spirits PLC) has announced an improved result in its preliminary results for what has been a year of transition for the company. The pre-exceptional pretax loss improved by 11% to £392K from a loss of £439K last year. On an underlying basis, excluding the £58K of redundancy costs incurred, there was a 24% year-on-year improvement at the preexceptional pre-tax loss level. Distil is moving from a mixed (third party agency and its owned) brand model to one focusing solely on the development of its owned brands. This has included a move to using third party distributors rather than its own direct sales force, which will reduce operating costs, offsetting the loss of contribution from the lower margin agency distribution business. FY15E will see further evolution of the owned brand model, as Distil focuses on achieving its initial objective of a planned break even position.