Sandro Boscaini: “there is more caution in the wine market, less stocks and more “just in time””

“We are recording a marked change - which began, moreover, at the end of 2022 - in the attitude of customers, especially foreign ones, with respect to procurement in the sign of increasing prudence and a return to just-in-time. As was to be expected, the trend now is to lighten inventories to cope with both rising interest rates and visibly slowing consumption. Contextual and therefore uncontrollable phenomena, such as inflationary pressure weighing on households and a certain generalized concern, also due to the persistence of geopolitical issues, combined with weather conditions quite adverse to tourism and beyond, lead us to be cautious in our expectations for the second half of the year. But the strategy is not changing: premium positioning, increasingly direct contact with the end consumer and omnichannel distribution”. Words from Sandro Boscaini, president of Masi Agricola, among the very few Italian wine companies listed on the Euronext Growth Milan (whose overwhelming majority is in the hands of the Boscaini family, with the three brothers Sandro, Mario and Bruno Boscaini holding 24.49% of the shares each, and Renzo Rosso’s Red Circle, a shareholder with 10% of the capital, while 7.56% is in the hands of the Enpaia Foundation and the remaining 8.96% on the market), and among the Italian leaders in the production of premium wines, which has just released its results for the first half of 2023.
At the level of net revenues, we are talking about €33.1 million, a figure down -10.4% compared to the same period in 2022, but, Masi points out, up +11% on pre-Covid levels, recorded in the first half of 2019. Margins were also down, with Ebitda at €5.5 million, on the €8.4 in the first half of 2022, “down due to the volume effect and lower non-recurring income, but in line with pre-Covid”. Net income was 1.8 million euros, while net financial debt 21.4 million euros (which was 7.7 million euros as of December 31, 2022, “due to a significant supply of Amarone”. The half-year 2023, Masi explains, sees growth in the “Duty Free & Travel Retail” channel. From the perspective of brands in the portfolio, the growth of Canevel continues, in the land of Prosecco.