Treasury Wine Estates, maker of Penfolds, launches beer range
Wine snobs, brace yourselves — the maker of Penfolds is launching its own range of beer. But there’s a catch for beer lovers wanting to get their hands on the new brew.
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Wine snobs, brace yourselves — the maker of Penfolds is launching its own range of beer.
Treasury Wine Estates, which was spun out of Foster’s Group eight years ago, will begin selling a number of beer varieties under its 19 Crimes label.
Treasury Wine is the world’s largest listed winemaker whose sprawling stable of vino includes Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Pepperjack, Yellowglen and Lindeman’s.
The move to begin selling beer is part of a new push for growth at the company which last year released a fortified wine laced with the Chinese spirit baijiu and a 28-year-old brandy under its famous Penfolds label.
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Treasury Wine today said it would begin a test launch of three beers — an American India pale ale, a pilsner and a lager — under its lesser known 19 Crimes label.
The beers will only be available in Ohio in the United States during the test phase.
They will hit shelves in March with plans to expand to more states in the US if they are a success.
Chief operating officer Tim Ford said the 19 Crimes label, launched 6 years ago, was experiencing “phenomenal growth” in the US.
“To build on this momentum 19 Crimes will now test launch three beers — an IPA, a dry-hop Pilsner and a colonial style lager in the state of Ohio,” he said today.
“We plan to scale this to select other states on completion of a successful test in the Ohio market.”
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Chief executive Michael Clarke said the company was developing a number of “adjacent businesses” such as beer which offered up multiple paths for future growth.
Treasury Wine will also introduce an Irish whiskey from July under the 19 Crimes label in a number of locations across the US.
The details came as the company posted a 17.1 per cent rise in net profit to $219.2 million for the six months to December compared to the same period a year earlier.
Total revenue rose 15.1 per cent to $1.54 billion.
Treasury Wine will pay an interim dividend of 18c, up from 15c a year earlier.
The company was split off from beer brewer Foster’s in May 2011 to become a stand-alone wine company.
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