Foley Wines Limited Analysis

Overview

Founded as Grove Mill Wine Company Limited, the company was established in 1988 when a group of Marlborough grape growers and business people recognised the potential of Marlborough as a premier wine-growing region. The early vintages achieved many wine awards to national and international acclaim. The Company changed its name from Grove Mill Wine Company Limited to The New Zealand Wine Company Limited in June 2002, it was listed on NZX since November 2003 under the symbol of NWC.

Foley Family Wines Limited, who operates wineries located in California and Washington State, completed a merger deal with NWC in September 2012. The company's name changed from The New Zealand Wine Company to Foley Family Wines Limited, and the ticker code was changed to FFW. In 2014 FFW purchased Martinborough Vineyard Estates.

On 3rd December 2018, Foley Family Wines Limited migrated the NZX Main Board and changed their name to Foley Wines Limited and their ticker code to FWL.

Performance

The following information was extracted from Foley Wines Limited's Full Year results, released on 28 February 2025

STRONG SALES RESULTS FOR FOLEY WINES IN CHALLENGING YEAR FOR INDUSTRY

Performance Overview:

Bottled sales revenue $66,375,000 (up 6%)

Case sales 610,000 (up 9%)

Operating earnings $1,388,000 (down 66.4%)

(Loss) after tax $(1,857,000) (down 54.5%)

Operating EBITDA $12,628,000 (down 21.9%)

Foley Wines Interim CEO Mike Higgins said, “despite the 2025 financial year being challenging for the Company and the New Zealand wine industry, I am pleased to report that we have had a record year for case sales. Whilst the wider market for packaged wine was down 7% on last year, our case sales were up 9% in the same period, with export case sales up 14.6%. This demonstrates our premiumisation strategy and the Company’s continued focus on developing strong routes to market for our brands is delivering results.”

“The size of the 2024 vintage, a decrease of 21% on the previous year’s harvest, meant we had to be very strategic in terms of where we were going to sell our wines and also focus on selling our premium products,” commented Higgins. Maintaining focus on selling packaged wine through established channels and assisting retailers with additional promotional funding to keep the Company’s brands front of mind for consumers was critical.