This year's harvest is a little light compared with last year's volumes, but a record net profit after tax for Delegat Group in the most recent results has seen the company's valuation push in the opposite direction - up to $1 billion.
The news comes after the winemaker saw global case sales of 1,576,000 with a 13% sales increase in North America in the six months to December 2018. That resulted in net profit after tax of $31.4 million – up 30% on the previous year.
Delegat Group, 66% owned by Jim Delegat and sister Rosemari, is New Zealand's fourth-largest wine company by litres of wine sold.
It has 100% ownership of Oyster Bay and Delegat's brands and dates back to 1947 when Croatian couple Nikola and Vidosava Delegat established a vineyard at Henderson, in west Auckland.
Delegat’s Oyster Bay brand sells more than a million cases in the North American market alone, making up more than 40% of all global sales. The brand was also just awarded a ‘Blue Chip Brand’ title by New York’s highly regarded Impact Magazine.
Managing director Jim Freeman told shareholders late last year that the company will also spend $33 million developing its vineyards in the current financial year to support an expected 23% lift in global sales by 2021.
Delegat has 4145 net hectares of vineyards, of which 3631ha are in New Zealand and 514 ha in Australia.
"We will continue to focus on the significant and immediate opportunity in North America, and that we will continue to learn and grow in new markets such as Asia," Freeman said.
2018: $620 million