Treasury Wine Estates is in the process of ‘retiring’ 30 per cent of its 3000 product lines, though the company has no plans to sell any of them.
The company’s chief executive told the SMH that he is aiming to have the task completed by half way through this year.
The idea is to hold onto the product lines with the option of re-introducing them at tactically advantageous times in the future instead of selling them.
The large number of product lines stretch across more than 100 brands which Treasury Wines now owns. That number increased by 25 after the acquisition of Diageo’s US wine business of British which came into effect at the beginning of this year.
Last week, Treasury announced that its first-half earnings increased 72 per cent to $146.8 million; and that its net profit after tax increased 42 per cent to $60.6 million.
Australia & New Zealand reported Earnings Before Interest, Tax, SGARA and material items (EBITS) growth of 6 per cent to $46.7m, driven by solid volume growth in a flat overall wine market in Australia.