Sales into the United States and Canada in the year ended June 30 were 1.01 million cases, a 14% lift on the year before.
In the US, the Oyster Bay brand is a top five-ranked wine in the $10 and above per bottle category and sales are also growing in all major Canadian provinces.
Delegats reported a record operating after-tax profit of $37m for the year, up from $34.4m previously.
This is the most accurate guide to the company’s performance, chairman Jim Delegat said. Revenues rose to $242.7m from $212m.
As well as record sales and earnings, there was a record grape harvest of 35.837 tonnes from the 2016 vintage, and a record number of international awards.
New Zealand production was up 33% on the low-yield 2015 season to 33,236t, and the new Barossa Valley Estate business in Australia was up 56% to 2600t.
The harvest was of excellent quality in all areas, managing director Graeme Lord said.
Delegats also produced its first vintage from the new Hawke’s Bay winery that will specialise in merlot, pinot gris, and sparkling wine production.
Total sales for the year were 2.41m cases, up from 2.21m a year earlier.
As well as North American growth, sales into the NZ, Australia and Asia-Pacific market increased 4% to 705,000 cases and into the United Kingdom-Europe-Ireland market, by 7% to 694,000.
Delegats is targeting a 41% lift in sales to 3.4m cases by 2021, Lord said. This includes a 1.68m tally for North America, which would be a 66% increase on current levels.
Growth in the other regions is targeted at about 22-24% over the same period.
NZ-Australia-Asia sales are targeted at 871,000 cases by 2021 and UK-Europe-Ireland, up to 849,000 cases.
In the UK, Oyster Bay was the top selling sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and merlot wine in the above-£8 a bottle category.
As well as North America, growth will also be driven by the international development of the Barossa Valley brand as it strives to become a world-leading “super-premium’’ wine company, Lord said.
At balance date, total assets were $683m including $282m in borrowings. This was a borrowings ratio of 41%, up from 36% a year earlier because more was spent on development.
Operating cashflow strengthened to $42.5m from $36.5m.
Note – Delegats favours operating earnings to measure performance, but accounting rules require a number of “fair value’’ adjustments relating to vineyard, grape and financial derivatives.
In the latest year, this added write-ups worth $17m to the result, whereas last year there was a write-down of $1.9m.
