Surging wine sales leave sweet aftertaste for Chapel Down after bitter year
Winemaker Chapel Down said that lockdown had sent its wine sales up over a third over the last year, but this was not enough to stop it from falling to a £7.9m full year loss.
The company also said that it would launch a new crowdfunding campaign in a bid to raise nearly £7m to help continue its growth.
The firm, which makes wine at its vineyards in Kent, said that sales had grown 38 per cent despite losing a third of sales from the closure of hospitality venues due to lockdown.
After a year in which direct to customer sales jumped a whopping 467 per cent, the segment now accounts for 18 per cent of Chapel Down’s business – up from 4.0 per cent last year.
The growth in sales in the division sent profit up 31 per cent for the segment at £5.1m, up from £3.9m the year before.
However, its beer and cider division, which makes 90 per cent of its sales through the hospitality sector, struggled.
As a result of closures, the firm sold just £2.3m worth of the drinks, 52 per cent of the prior year’s sales.
Chapel Down has now sold off Curious Drinks, its label for beer and wine. Exceptional costs of £6.7m related to the sale were the main reason for the firm’s full year loss.
Chief executive Frazer Thompson said: “The past year has been extremely challenging for everyone. As we start to emerge from the crisis, Chapel Down’s wine business is now in much better shape.
“There is a great deal of excitement around English wine. In Chapel Down we have the leading brand with a growing reputation, the broadest distribution, a rapidly growing on-line business and huge potential for growth as the quality of our wines improve every year.
“It was also a heart-breaking year for the Curious Brewery which was hamstrung by the closure of the hospitality business for most of 2020. With the need to support the rapid growth of our core wine business and the need to transform the sales towards e-commerce and off sales successfully and quickly, the beer business became unsustainable for us.
“I am pleased that we were able to dispose of it without further redundancies and to new owners who will invest.”