Spirits giant Halewood has moved its HQ to London and plans to dispose of its former Merseyside base within months - despite recording its "second best trading year" ever.
The firm, which makes Whitley Neill, Liverpool Gin and Lambrini, said in the year to June 27 2020, it saw gross profit increase by 7% after "strong trading" of its core spirit brands.
Earnings fell by 18% after a previous record year in the financial period to June 2019.
A short-term impact by the Covid-19 crisis, heavy investment in marketing for new brand launches and growth in personnel in foreign subsidiaries impacted earnings, but the company still reported its second best results in its 42 year history.
The news comes despite Halewood announcing back in August that it would close its 30-acre Huyton HQ, offering staff voluntary redundancies. The firm said at the time that the move to close the facility with six main bottling lines was due to the pandemic.
Stewart Hainsworth, group chief executive of the firm now known as Halewood Artisanal Spirits, said: “Halewood has delivered its second best trading year its history with an excellent growth in artisanal spirits, 'The heart of our strategy'.
"The company remains committed to substantial marketing support for its core brands despite the very challenging background of Covid-19. We quickly refocused our efforts on channels that were open to trade whilst taking the difficult decisions to cut back on our operating costs in areas with less potential.
"Whitley Neill Gin remains the number one premium gin in the UK, and we have delivered exceptional growth with Dead Man’s Fingers spiced rum and JJ Whitley Russian Vodka. Since the end of the financial year the business has continued to deliver strong performance once again driven by artisanal spirits.”
The results were posted to Companies House last week for the period up to June 27 2020 - around three months after the UK's Covid crisis began.
Whitley Neill said that during 2020 it completed its investment in Bankhall and Leith Whisky Distilleries and commenced work at a new Midlands-based Sadlers Peaky Blinder Whisky Distillery.
A focused production strategy increased spirit capacity at the H&A Chorley bottling site and opened a new John Crabbie whisky bottling facility at Edinburgh, whilst facilitating the closure of the Liverpool bottling facility in October 2020.
Halewood said plans are underway to move all liquid production and logistics away from Liverpool in order to dispose of the site this year.
The London office has become the HQ whilst the company, which employs over 1,000 people worldwide, continues to "diversify its regional production strategy to enhance provenance of its brands".
Last March, following the UK being locked down due to the coronavirus outbreak, the company said it was to close its US office in Miami, as well as downsize the Australian business, with senior management also taking "significant pay cuts".
The results revealed international expansion in South Africa, Russia and Australia remained on track while investment in the USA and Europe has been scaled back.
H&A Prestige has been restructured to focus on larger clients with International brands, whilst reducing exposure to small contract packing customers.
South Africa, despite a prolonged shutdown due to government restrictions for Covid-19, had performed strongly up to June, particularly Belgravia Gin.
Looking ahead to the next 12 months with challenges posed including Covid and Brexit, the report said the firm expects it to be a "unique and challenging environment that requires a pro-active response".
