KWV SEES A POSITIVE 2ND QUARTER

KWV, one of South Africa’s largest wine and spirits producers, has posted a strong 2nd quarter with an 87.8% rise in earnings. Despite tough market pressure and competitive international trading, sales increased 6.4% driven by a volume growth of 37.9% locally while exports declined 1.2%. "Sales of our wines and brandies in South Africa have exceeded expectations, and we have also performed well in the rest of Africa", CEO Willem Barnard said. Although KWV had difficulty trading in the Far East and the UK, Germany and the Americas continue to see a steady performance. "International trading conditions in the wine industry remain difficult and extremely competitive," he stated. "Consumer spending in general and specifically the demand for wine, remains fairly flat while there remains a huge over-supply of wine globally.” Overall, Barnard concluded that the positive results of the first six months are unlikely to be repeated in the second six month period.