Accounts for family-owned wine importer Cassidy Wines suggest the company did some regrouping last year.

The numbers show that turnover dropped by almost 20 per cent to €16.8 million, while losses more than doubled to €476,493.

Business review
Cassidy, which has been in business since 1977, suffered a blow when it lost a distribution contract with one of the multiples, but has since reviewed its business model with a view to increasing its gross margin.

This has seen a number of changes to the products sold by the distributor, which are sourced from all the main wine-growing regions of the world.

Cassidy’s directors also examined the Citywest-based firm’s cost base and reduced its employee numbers from 27 to 23.

Consequently, the wage bill fell from almost €1.8 million to €1.6 million.

The directors’ prudence extended to the non-payment of a dividend for the year, while their collective pay packet also declined very slightly.