STOCK SPIRITS GROUP - Trading statement

Stock Spirits Group, a leading Central European branded spirits producer, provides this trading update in advance of its Annual General Meeting today.

Our expectation for the full year is unchanged despite supply chain disruptions in Poland continuing throughout the first quarter. The first quarter was extremely weak, but we have been encouraged by the re-emergence of more normal trading conditions in the six weeks since Easter.

In Poland, the market rate of decline in vodka consumption reduced slightly to 3.8% in the three months to March, versus 4.3% in 2014 (source: Nielsen). We continued not to chase uneconomic sales and therefore have lost share. As stated previously, the supply chain disruption seen in 2014 continued during the first quarter and some key customers significantly reduced their vodka inventories.

All other markets results are in line with expectations.

We therefore anticipate reporting a weak overall result for H1, but with a continued recovery in H2 we expect our full year results to be in line with expectations. This assumes the continuation of normal trading conditions together with benefits seen from our recent initiatives.

The first half results for 2015 will be released on the 20th August 2015

The Company will also host a conference call at 9.30am (GMT) today, Tuesday 19th May 2015 to discuss the statement. To access the call please dial +44 (0)20 3427 1929 and enter confirmation code 2882821 when prompted.

Trading statement at STOCK SPIRITS website