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Listed juice maker Charlie's Group is looking to take a swig of the alcoholic drinks market.
At its annual meeting in Auckland yesterday, Charlie's confirmed it has a proposal with an alcoholic beverages company and is also looking at prospects to increase exports.
Chairman Ted Van Arkel said
after the meeting he hoped to announce developments before Charlie's issued its interim results for the year to December 30 at the end of February.
Chief executive Stefan Lepionka said Charlie's had "researched, tested and pitched" an idea for moving into alcoholic beverages and was waiting to hear back from a third party.
The unnamed party had interests in New Zealand and overseas, but he declined to specify which category it was in - the beer, wine, spirits or ready-to-drink segment of the market.
The company said integrating the Charlie's juice and Phoenix soft drinks brands had been a major achievement over the past year.
And Lepionka said there were no special issues in the juice and soft drink brands being joined by an alcohol brand.
Charlie's Group was in the "liquid in a bottle" and "share of throat" markets.
It was looking at drinking products and brands "to suit an occasion".
"We think that is right in our space," he said.
Charlie's was also in the advanced stages of product development with marketing plans and would require further investment into products, he said.
The annual meeting heard that Charlie's had doubled its size in the past year after buying Phoenix Organics soft drinks last December.
The group has a market capitalisation of just $49.3 million, making it one of the smallest companies on the NZX.
But thanks to the interest of co-founder Marc Ellis the company has a profile beyond its capital.
Yesterday's standing-room-only meeting drew 130 shareholders, which was similar to The Warehouse Group's turnout, whose market capitalisation is 40 times as large.
Lepionka said the company was trading profitably.
Operating profit for the year to June 30 of $366,000 was down from $438,000 the previous year.
The company shares rose 0.3c yesterday to 17.2c.
Van Arkel said the doubling of annual revenue to $18.5 million had been the result of the purchase of Phoenix Organics Group.
He also saw no branding issues in the juice company moving into alcohol.
The brand values were about "cheekiness in the good sense of the word".
The annual meeting was the first with a new-look board established after Collins Asset Management took a stake in the company.
All four directors stood again for re-election.
Collins Asset Management took an interest in the company last year with an issue of shares to finance the Phoenix Organics purchase and the company now has a 19.9 per cent stake.
Collins Asset Management is owned by Primecare founder Bev Collins and is represented by Tim Cook.
Charlie's was founded seven years ago by Lepionka and sports celebrity Ellis. Both have a 16 per cent stake.
Ellis returned to the board recently after resigning over what Van Arkel called "personal challenges".
Van Arkel appointed Business Round Table deputy Diane Foreman to the board in February.
Collins Assets Management is cashed up after selling Primecare's retirement village assets, netting a return of around $100 million, and the company has indicated it wants to expand.
But Tim Cook ruled out Collins launching a takeover for Charlie's.
On November 11 Wellington businessman Tony Kerridge bought 4.4 per cent of Charlie's from Vodka company 42 Below.