Sales surged £7m at Liberty Wines over the past year, the supplier’s latest financials reveal.
Revenues grew 10.4% to £75m at the supplier for the year ending 31 March 2019, results filed at Companies House reveal. Operating profits were up £989k to £2.6m.
Notably, EBITDA rose 42.9% to £2.98m – in stark contrast to the prior financial year, which saw Liberty’s earnings hammered by the weak pound.
Liberty’s finance director Andrew Knott said the business had “successfully continued to combine its extensive product portfolio with excellent customer service”.
This was despite “challenging” economic conditions, he added, such as a drop in sales in the on-trade and a slump in the “regional off-trade”, which “experienced significant challenges as their business models came under threat from the large retailers and digital disruptors”.
The grocers, however, had “performed strongly”, he said, and despite several high-profile CVAs in the hospitality sector, such as Prezzo, Carluccio’s, and Byron, Knott said Liberty’s bad debts were “consistent with previous years” and its sales to the premium on-trade had risen by 12.7%.
The year saw Liberty hire an additional 25 new staff members, splashing out £43k on wine training across the business. The supplier trains all its staff to a minimum of level one Wine & Spirit Education Trust accreditation.
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