Artisanal Spirits Company: AGM Statement

24th May 2022 | Artisanal Spirits Company

AGM Statement

Mark Hunter, Chair of The Artisanal Spirits Company (AIM: ART), the owner of The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (“SMWS”), the leading curator and provider of premium, single cask Scotch malt whisky and other spirits for sale primarily online to a discerning global membership, will provide the following statement in respect of the first four months of the year at its Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) being held at 9.00am today:

Strong trading and membership growth in the year to date

The Board is pleased to confirm that the positive momentum in the business referred to in the preliminary results announcement released in March has continued, with revenue growth in the period to April remaining above 30% year-on-year.

Global membership growth, a leading indicator of future revenue growth, is now slightly ahead of management expectations, up over 6% in the period and 25% year-on-year to just over 35,000.

Continued progress against strategic objectives

Good progress has been made at, our new multi-purpose supply chain facility at Masterton Bond. Cask racking has now largely been installed with main contractors appointed and due to commence work this month. We continue to anticipate that the site will become fully operational in the second half of the year and be a contributor to improving the already strong margins of the business.

Talent and organisational development remain an important pillar of our strategy and we were pleased to receive an overall Employee Engagement Index score of 81 from a recent staff survey. This is an exceptional result – well above reported UK and global averages – demonstrating the belief colleagues have in our vision and values.

On track to deliver a strong full year performance, forward revenue guidance maintained

Year on year growth of over 30% in part reflects cycling over low Q1-21 sales in UK Venues & Europe and we remain cognisant that comparative performance figures will get tougher in the second half of the year. Furthermore, the Chinese government’s zero tolerance approach to managing Covid-19 has presented additional challenges for our business in that territory in the current quarter. However, we continue to make encouraging progress against our strategy and the Group remains on course to deliver strong revenue growth for the full year in line with current consensus market expectations.

Notes

1. The Board of the Artisanal Spirits Company consider that current consensus market expectations for the year ending 31 December 2022 are revenues of £21.6m (2021 actual revenues £18.2m)

David Ridley and Andrew Dane, MD & FD respectively, outline not only the key highlights from the results,  but also the progress made since the IPO, an update on trading since the year end, along with an outlook for the group