The number of cases of wine being sold continues to rise, with the 1.576 million figure for the six months to December 31 being a 14% lift on the previous year’s 1.377m cases.
Delegat reported an operating net profit after tax of $31.4m, up from $26.9m.
After tax allowances and a one-off gain on currency hedging the bottom-line profit was $25.3m, up from $19.4m.
Sales in North America, the group’s key market, rose 13% to 640,000.
A new distribution partner in Britain led to a jump in European sales to 469,000 cases from 358,000. A smaller increase, to 467,000 from 451,000 was achieved in the NZ/Australia/Pacific zone.
The sales plus some currency gains lifted revenue by $15.4m to $143m.
Executive chairman Jim Delegat said the group is well positioned to pursue its goal of being a leading super-premium wine company. He forecast full-year sales of 3.04m cases, an 11% increase on the previous year. At this time last year he did not expect the three million mark to be reached till 2020.
The full-year after-tax operating result is expected to be at least $50.3m, a 12% increase.
He said Delegat is spending $18.5m this year on vineyard development and on the Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough wineries.
Operating cashflow for the half-year was $21.3m, down from $21.2m.
Total assets at balance date were $723.3m and borrowings $298.5m. Interest costs were covered more than six times by earnings before interest and tax (Ebit) during the half-year.
