Charlie's set for $3.4m earnings

Beverage firm Charlie's Group is expecting earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $3.2 million to $3.4 million for the year to the end of June.

That compared to a loss of $925,000 the previous year. Unaudited gross sales were up 1.7 per cent from last year to $34.3m, with double digit growth in Australia and the 14 countries the group exported to, Charlie's chairman Ted van Arkel said yesterday. New Zealand was slightly down on last year on a cases sold basis.

Full year net profit was expected to be between $2.2m and $2.4m, with the result including a one-off gain of $1.2m relating to the sale of the company's Henderson site.

Net profit from core trading was expected to be between $1m and $1.2m. The full year result combined with working capital management had helped reduce net debt from $7.1m to $1.6m in the past 12 months.

- NZPA