The company attributed the decline to $22.2 million to the fact a retail exclusive project with a national retailer in 2016 wasn’t repeated in FY 2017. But there’s more: sales related to two other retail exclusive partners decreased in FY17 vs. FY16.
The company’s wholesale segment saw sales fall 22.2% from FY2016. But direct-to-consumer sales rose 3.3%.
Despite the sales decline, Truett-Hurst loss was cut in half, falling to $204,000 from $503,000.
“Fiscal year 2017 was a year of significant change for our company,” commented Phillip L. Hurst, president/ceo. “We moved our wine production to a new custom crush facility and purchased state of the art winemaking equipment to achieve greater quality control over our ultra-premium products. We broke ground on the VML tasting room at our Dry Creek Valley estate to enhance the reach of our DTC segment. Moreover, we put in place new sales, marketing, and finance leadership allowing us to strengthen our relationships with distributor partners and key customers.”