Nordic alcoholic drinks major Anora Group has lowered its forecast on a key profitability metric amid pressure on sales.
The Falling Feather wines producer is projecting its comparable EBITDA will reach €65m-75m ($49m-82m), down from its previous forecast of €75m-85m.
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Anora’s comparable EBITDA for its 2023 financial year hit €68m. In 2022, the group booked comparable EBITDA of €76.1m.
Explaining the reasoning behind the profit warning, the Koskenkorva vodka distiller said it had seen “lower volumes in beverage sales in wine and spirits segments in September than previously forecasted especially in the monopoly channels”.
In the first half of this year, Anora saw its comparable EBITDA rise 15.2% to €24.1m despite a 5.3% decline in sales to €324m. All three of Anora’s reporting divisions – wine, spirits and industrial – saw sales fall. The industrial division takes in the sale of products including packaging, starch and ethanols.
In June, the company announced plans to launch a range of lower abv wines in Finnish grocery stores, making the most of a change to alcohol sales rules in the country.
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By GlobalDataEarlier that month, Finland’s parliament voted to increase the maximum alcohol content for drinks sold in supermarkets from 5.5% to 8% abv.
Anora’s 8% abv wines line includes its brands like Chill Out, as well as Treasury Wine Estates‘ Lindeman’s, which it distributes in Finland.
Similarly to other Nordic countries, Finland operates an alcohol monopoly system which permits grocery stores and supermarkets to sell drinks with a maximum abv of 4.7%. Drinks containing more than 4.7% abv are sold by the state-owned alcoholic drinks retailer Alko.
In 2023, Anora made a number of revisions to its forecasts, issuing one profit warning in December and another in August.
