Distil Regulatory News (DIS)

7 May 2019

Distil Plc

Trading update

Distil plc (AIM: DIS), owner of premium drinks brands RedLeg Spiced Rum, Blackwoods Gin and Vodka, Blavod Black Vodka, Jago's Cream Liqueur and Diva Vodka, is pleased to provide an update on trading for the final quarter of its financial year ended 31 March 2019.

Unaudited year-on-year fourth quarter (January - March 2019) revenues and volumes were in line with our expectations, being 33% and 32% lower respectively, reflecting the additional stock build by our distributors during the third quarter. This was as a result of the earlier phasing of our promotional activities, the sales benefits of which were seen in the third quarter, which is our major trading period.

We continued to invest in the marketing of our brands, increasing year-on-year spend by 10% during the quarter. Sales from our distributors to the trade continued to grow with year-on-year volumes increasing 10%.

Don Goulding, Executive Chairman of Distil, said:

"Our fourth quarter result was in line with expectations following a very strong third quarter performance where we increased marketing acitivity and shipments to our distributors.

We anticipate full year performance for the year ended 31 March 2019 to be in line with current market expectations and look forward to reporting our full year preliminary results in June 2019.

We expect continued growth in our core Rum and Gin markets during 2019 and will continue to invest in our brand marketing to grow our market share. In March we announced the launch of our new RedLeg variant, sales of which commence in the on-trade in early June"

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About Distil

Distil Plc 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 spiced rum, vodka, gin, vodka vanilla cream liqueur and are called RedLeg Spiced Rum. Blackwoods Vintage Gin, Blackwoods Vodka, Blavod Original Black Vodka, Diva Vodka and Jago's Vanilla Cream Liqueur.

www.distilplc.com