Chapel Down enjoys sparkling Christmas sales after 2024 hiccups
Share:
England’s largest winemaker has reported a surge in Christmas sales, helping it bounce back from lagging trading earlier in the year and an aborted attempt to sell the company. Chapel Down, which owns about a 10th of the vineyard space in England, said it sold about 7% more of its bottles, magnums and cases this Christmas than last.
The strong festive period puts a cork in an otherwise disappointing sales year for the winemaker, whose chief executive Andrew Carter is set to leave at the end of January to take over at Yorkshire regional brewer Timothy Taylor. Chapel Down, which specialises in sparkling wine, a product that has grown in popularity as an alternative to champagne in recent years, suffered a slump in supermarket orders earlier in 2024.
It has previously blamed the fall in supermarket stock, known as the “off-trade”, on factors including the timing of retailers re-stocking. Chapel Down said on Thursday that the issues were a “one-off” and that trading rebounded in the second half of the year to leave its final sales income at £16.3 million, 5% down year on year.
Mr Carter leaves after being forced to abandon an attempt to sell the company over the summer, after the board found there were no offers on the table that would “create superior long-term shareholder value”. His replacement, James Pennefather joins from whisky producer The Lakes Distillery, which he led through a sale process to English sparkling winemaker Nyetimber for £71 million in June.
