Australian Vintage has positioned Poco Vino as its key performance driver, with the brand poised to “more than double” the size of its portfolio in the coming months.
In a filing to the Australian Securities Exchange this week, the group provided an update on its fiscal second half, which runs until the end of next month. The company, which launched 18.7cl-packaged Poco Vino in July, said that its “sales run rate” in the six months so far has been 10% up on H1, when total sales registered a year-on-year decline of 1.7%.
The credit for the return to growth went to what the McGuigan brand owner described as “strong innovation uptake, investment returns and stabilising of core brands”. Second-half sales are now forecast to finish up by 5% on the corresponding period in fiscal 2025.
Also included in the update were details on the plans for Poco Vino (above), which is available in “over” nine markets. The brand’s current six-strong line of still wines will be augmented in fiscal 2027 (to the end of June next year) by sparkling SKUs as well as an unspecified number of flavoured spritz variants, bringing the core range up to 14.
At the same time, a “premium” extension called the Atlas Series will hit the global travel retail channel, priced at around AUD25 (US$18) per 18.7cl unit. Further details were not disclosed.
“As the company has stated previously, fiscal 2026 was a transformational year to demonstrate to shareholders that a turnaround is possible,” the company added. “We remain on track to achieve the company’s core deliverable of neutral underlying cash flow.
“We are particularly pleased to see the growth in sales in the second half over the first half despite sales and cost impacts due to the Iran war.”
Speaking exclusively to Global Drinks Intel earlier this year, CEO Tom Dusseldorp praised Poco Vino’s ‘make where sold’ potential. “Poco Vino is probably the only brand that could change the origin of its wine in a conversation,” he said. “That makes us very powerful in terms of the consumer proposition, because we can unlock any market.
“There isn’t a single barrier to our ability to access that market’s consumer.”
