DISTIL PLC

Business and Financial Review • May 8, 2014

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RNS Number : 4841G

Distil PLC

08 May 2014

Distil PLC

("Distil" or the "Company")

Trading Update

8 May 2014

Distil PLC (AIM: Dis), the AIM quoted owner of premium drinks brands, is pleased to give an update on trading for the year ended 31 March 2014.

The fourth quarter saw the conclusion of our move from being a UK Distributor of third party brands to being a business entirely focused on the development of our owned brands and, as a result, we decided to change the name of the Company to Distil PLC. This new name better describes the nature of our products: distilled spirits, and also reflects the growing breadth of all of our brands rather than appearing as a single brand company.

In May 2013 we acquired Blackwoods gin and vodka, Diva vodka and Jago's cream liqueur, and have spent much of the last year working on making improvements to these products and their packaging. This work is now complete for Blackwoods with the launch of Blackwoods vodka in March 2014 (Vintage Dry Gin and Limited Edition 60% ABV were launched in Sept 2013), both Diva's and Jago's development are now nearing completion with Diva being launched in the coming quarter and Jago's planned for launch prior to the peak Christmas 2014 trading period.

RedLeg Spiced Rum continues to grow and expand its distribution and consumer following. 

Equally important have been our efforts to expand the geographical distribution of our brands and to improve their market coverage. In January 2014 we announced the appointment of The Water Company as our exclusive distributor for Blackwoods and RedLeg Spiced Rum in Spain, one of the largest markets for Gin and Rum in the world. We are also currently active in discussions with a number of parties to appoint a new distributor for Blavod Black Vodka in the US to help us expand in this important export market.

We have continued to make improvements to the Company's financial controls and now invoice all sales transactions in sterling rather than local currency.  This provides greater pricing stability between markets and reduces currency exposure risk.  Our use of our factoring facility has been minimal since the successful fund raising in October 2013 and this facility came to a contractual end at the end of April 2014.  Primarily therefore, expenditure in this quarter has been on brand redesign, brand development, product improvement and social media.

Commenting, Don Goulding, Executive Chairman of Distil said:

" Overall conditions remain particularly challenging for the "value" segment of the market as the leading standard brands chase volume, however I'm pleased to say that premium brands such as ours, continue to take market share and to provide growth in key markets.

Premium gin and rum remain in growth. On the international front we are seeing a slow down of the growth in Asia, particularly China, and although these markets are relatively underdeveloped for our brands we are actively seeking to open new distribution channels in this region which we believe has great potential over the longer term. 

I'm pleased to report that we remain in line to meet market expectations for the year just ended, and we are on target to achieve monthly break-even in the early part of this financial year."

The Company plans to announce its Full Year results for the year ended 31 March 2014 in June 2014.

For further information please contact:

Distil PLC
Don Goulding Executive Chairman	Tel: +44 207 352 2096
SPARK Advisory Partners Limited (NOMAD)
Neil Baldwin  Mark Brady	Tel +44 113 366 2266 /2268
SI Capital (Broker)
Andy Thacker Nick Emerson	Tel +44 1483 413500
Cadogan PR
Alex Walters	Tel: +44 207 4995002

About Distil

Distil Plc (formerly Blavod Wines & Spirits) is quoted on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. It owns drinks brands in a number of sectors of the alcoholic drinks market. These include premium Vodka, premium Gin, Vodka Vanilla Cream Liqueur and Spiced Rum and are called Blavod Original Black Vodka, Blackwoods Vintage Gin, Blackwoods Vodka, Diva Vodka, Jago's Cream liqueur and RedLeg Spiced Rum.

www.distilplc.com

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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