Halewood Artisanal Spirits has shed more than 40% of its workforce as part of a comprehensive restructure to offset declining spirits sales.
The Whitley Neill gin, Aber Falls and Crabbie’s ginger beer supplier blamed “macro headwinds impacting the UK and the knock-on effect on consumer spend items, including premium spirits” for another year of falling sales.
Turnover at the business in the year ended 28 June 2025 sunk £12.2m (9.6%) to £115.6m, driven by the winding down of third-party whisky manufacturing and lower sales volumes of Crabbie’s ginger beer overseas as a result of US tariffs.
It means turnover at Halewood has now fallen by 71.2% since 2020.
Operating losses, meanwhile, fell by 16.1% to £15.7m, with cost-cutting measures offset by £12.3m in exceptional items “arising from restructuring and reorganisation activities”, the supplier said.
These included costs related the closure of Halewood’s Chorley bottling facility, Buckshaw warehouse, Hawkshead Staveley Brewery and its London office.
A number of historical intercompany loans totalling £8m were also deemed “irrecoverable” by Halewood and therefore recorded as one-off impairments.
Halewood was taking “a revised shape to return it to profitability”, said company director Judy Halewood.
There had been “a material reduction in headcount and further scaling back of international expansion projects”, alongside a number of “strategic business decisions” taken – including the cessation of third-party manufacturing and Canadian distribution of Crabbie’s – she revealed.
The average number of employees at Halewood fell by 42% from 390 on 29 June 2024 to 225 by the end of this June.
Identifying green shoots, Halewood pointed to the “underlying strength” of the business’s core brands. Whitley Neill had returned to growth while the JJ Family Distillers Brand had seen “a strong performance”, she pointed out.
“Key objectives for the group following the restructuring that has been undertaken are to grow adjusted EBITDA and to generate growth in operating income by focusing on its own artisanal spirits,” she added.
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