Australian Vintage secures long term funding

Australia’s second largest listed wine company Australian Vintage has announced better than expected sales for the 08/09 financial year.
AVG’s CEO, Dane Hudson said:  “In one of the Australian wine industry’s toughest years, a focus on export and driving branded wine is delivering 9 per cent higher sales. Our sales are significantly ahead of the industry in both volume and value.  The strategic review conducted earlier this year has reshaped the company creating a more flexible operating platform that has reduced costs across the business and allowed us to outperform the market in the very difficult industry conditions.

“This combination of higher sales, reduced debt and lower costs generated a US$29m positive operating cash flow in the second half of the financial year compared to a negative operating cash flow of US$1.1m for the same time last year. We have delivered on our February commitment to the market and reduced debt from US$169m at the end of December 2008 to US$145m as at the end of the financial year.  Our 2008/9 operating cash flow is positive US$17m.  As a result we have reached an in principle agreement with our bank to extend the debt facility for a further two years. The details will be finalised in August. We are on track to meet market expectations when we report our full year results on 26 August 2009."

1 August 2009 - Felicity Murray