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DIS Distil Plc

0.50
0.00 (0.00%)
18 Mar 2024 - Closed
Delayed by 15 minutes
Share Name Share Symbol Market Type Share ISIN Share Description
Distil Plc LSE:DIS London Ordinary Share GB0030164023 ORD 0.1P
  Price Change % Change Share Price Shares Traded Last Trade
  0.00 0.00% 0.50 0.00 08:00:00
Bid Price Offer Price High Price Low Price Open Price
0.45 0.55 0.50 0.50 0.50
Industry Sector Turnover Profit EPS - Basic PE Ratio Market Cap
Distilled And Blended Liquor 1.32M -748k -0.0011 -4.55 3.42M
Last Trade Time Trade Type Trade Size Trade Price Currency
- O 0 0.50 GBX

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Date Time Title Posts
15/3/202411:29Distil PLC - Here's to a spirited future!10,550
27/12/202321:41******** DISTIL - That'll be a DOUBLE ! *********361
25/10/201812:12DISCLOSURE.........39
11/10/201807:37value1
14/1/200209:49Biodegradable Plastic-

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Posted at 18/3/2024 08:20 by Distil Daily Update
Distil Plc is listed in the Distilled And Blended Liquor sector of the London Stock Exchange with ticker DIS. The last closing price for Distil was 0.50p.
Distil currently has 684,399,579 shares in issue. The market capitalisation of Distil is £3,421,998.
Distil has a price to earnings ratio (PE ratio) of -4.55.
This morning DIS shares opened at 0.50p
Posted at 24/2/2024 13:28 by petersinthemarket
Only another 6 to 8 weeks and we will know how the final quarter and the full financial year to 31 March have gone. There were some rays of hope in the last trading update, but nothing earth shattering and any comparisons with the disasterous previous year were quite pointless. We must all be hoping that sales have moved up yet another gear.

I wonder if DG will at last announce our new scotch product. It has been in discussion for most of 2 years now.

We still need something to make the general public notice our range. Crtainly, when i ask around the pubs in sw Wales I have yet to find anyone who has even heard of us, or our product range. So much for that horribly expensive tv advert.

I would like to see much more use of the DIS travelling pop-up shops. Low cost, personal contact and sampling to introduce new buyers. I think they are said to have occured in Brighton and Cambridge earlier this year, but I haven't heard about others. Despite the new distribution plans, I still feel this company is far too London-centric. I can't buy RedLEg in sw Wales. Our Tesco branches and others seem to have given up on it and I have to get mine from Amazon.

This year we look forward to expansion of the new Ardgowan/DIS joint visitor centre. Personally, I think that project is quite exciting and I'd really like to see it for myself, but it's a heck of a slog to the west of Glasgow from sw Wales.

I get minor email updates from Ardgowan on a weekly/fortnightly basis. I do wish that DIS would be as pro-active. I suspect part of the general lack of interest in DIS is less to do with it's share price and much more to do with it's anonymity.

The DIS team have obviously had to work harder than expected over the last year, but I believe that 2024 will at last see a turn around.
Have a good weekend all.
pete
Posted at 13/1/2024 17:12 by petersinthemarket
Distil Plc (DIS) currently has only 3 directors, namely our Executive Chairman, Donald Colin Goulding, the (absent) non-exec director, Roland Andreas Grain (Austrian) and the Company Secretary/Chief Accountant, Shaun Claydon.

At Companies House, none of these men are defined as Persons with Significant Control (PSC) as that would require them to own more than 25% of Distil's shares and voting rights and also to have the right to appoint or remove other directors.

As at 3 January 2024, the closest we have to a PSC is Roland Grain, who holds 23.6% of the company. Rothschilds own 19.32%, our new face, Dr Graham Edward Cooley, owns 7.07% and an HSBC nominee holds 5.85%. This brings the total of major shareholders to 55.84% of the total 905,113,864 shares in issue. I believe Don Goulding, who is 70 years old in April this year, owns a relatively insignificant 10m shares which he bought more than a decade ago, shortly after joining DIS.

Roland Grain has a highly successful record of investing in the spirits industry. He started with a small investment in the Cotswolds Distillery and continued with investments in Manly Spirits in Sydney, Australia and the East London Liquor Company. He owns Potstill Spirits Trading in Vienna, Austria's largest whisky importer with a choice of over 1200 different labels. He is also CEO, majority investor and owner of Ardgowan Distillery Company Ltd., a private company in which DIS has a small financial stake, based in Inverkip, one hours drive from Glasgow.

The sudden appearance of 60 year old Dr Cooley as a major shareholder in a spirits company is a surprise. He is a proven entrepreneur and developer of early stage businesses with a very considerable, technology-based, business backround. He also has a stated interest in personally investing in various AIM companies, although nothing previously in the spirits industry, as far as I can tell. For over 13 years, Dr Cooley was CEO of ITM Power who manufacture electrolysers in the hydrogen industry and during his tenure he had a very successful track record of building the company, substantially raising the share price, raising large amounts of development capital and also finding overseas markets for his products.

During the last decade, Dr Cooley has variously been a chairman, director, or advisor to the board in quite a few different AIM-listed, early-stage, quoted/unquoted, renewable-energy and other sustainable businesses and last year joined the board of venture capital company Brigantia Capital. He also founded a management consultancy, Yelooc, but his only serious current commitment appears to be as chairman of the board of directors of NanoSUN Ltd., who mass-produce hydrogen refuelling stations.

With a degree in physics, a PhD in materials technology, an MBA and a string of technical institute fellowships, Dr Cooley BSc (Hons), MPhil, Ph.D. is clearly a clever man, but what prompted him to take a £200,000 stake in a small spirits company?

Dr Cooley was extremely well paid at ITM (salary plus expenses between £350k-£500k pa) and can apparently well afford to take a large personal shareholding in any AIM-quoted company that takes his fancy. He tends to increase his investment, once he has got to know the company better. As an example, he took an initial 3.3% stake in AIM-listed Light Science Technologies Holdings Plc and in August 2023 increased his holding to 4.8%.

Dr Cooley's interest in us can only be in his private capacity as an astute investor in AIM companies with growth prospects but, as the placing was not open to the public, I wonder who invited him? He will now have easy access to our directors but, at the moment, he has no commitment to offer advice. Perhaps, if he likes what he sees, he might increase his stake in due course.
pete
Posted at 12/1/2024 18:19 by petersinthemarket
Some turn of the year jottings, looking back.

The Q3 TU on 10 January was, imo, a little lack-lustre, but it did at least appear to draw a firm line under eighteen months of supply disruption. There is plainly still some way to go to revive our business after the distributor changes, but there will hopefully be more good news during 2024, with the new distributorship settled down, new product launches due, new efforts going into our export markets and the opening of the new Ardgowan premises in Inverkip in Q1 of FY2024-25.

With the Q3/TU published and a major business period behind us, some may now assume that little further progress can be made before the end of the financial year, but it may be surprising to recall that Q4/FY2023 represented the best trading quarter of that financial year, both in terms of absolute revenue achieved at an estimated £450k and also on a YoY basis so, if everyone does their bit, it is still possible that the end-of-winter period may yet bring further recovery during this financial year.

There was surprisingly little damage to our business following the UK government introduction of the first national covid lockdown measures on 23 March 2020. It is interesting to note that, in fact, DIS profited from covid due to higher off-sale purchases after the closure of many commercial premises and the share price went over 2p/sh for the first time in several years. The previous best, around 5yrs ago, had been just over 3p/sh. I believe we will climb these dizzy heights again in due course.

On 6 July 2022, DIS announced the appointment of a Commercial Director, Alex Baker, and the
appointment of a new distributor, Marussia Beverages UK and it was this news that was to pre-empt our business collapse.

Marussia would be primarily responsible for servicing the DIS on-trade (hospitality) and independent sectors. Other UK (retail) customers, including the majors, would be handled directly by the Distil Plc team. The change-over period was far more difficult to handle than ever predicted, resulting in substantial inventory depletion and massive damage to our results. This confusion is now behind us and there are hopefull signs that business confidence is rebuilding. .

On the 24th November 2023 we yet again suffered major dilution when DIS conditionally raised £0.765m (gross) through a placement and subscription of 218.6m new shares at 0.35p per share. The Placing Shares and Subscription Shares represented approximately 24.1% of the Enlarged Share Capital and mostly went to Roland Grain and BERO (Rothschild). It is assumed that the cash raise will support stock-build and operations through to 2025, by which time we should be seeing profitability restored.

A new face, Dr Graham Cooley, former CEO of ITM Power, invested £200,000 for 57.1m Ordinary Shares in the Placing, which is odd as I don't quite understand his interest in the Placing last year. Donald Goulding is 70 years of age in April this year. It will be interesting to see if anything else transpires.
Have a good weekend all.
pete.
Posted at 26/12/2023 12:50 by petersinthemarket
My contribution above was not intended to imply anything, simply to lay out the MBG association with DIS as I currently see it. Speculation is fun, but atm I see no obvious sign of impending entrepreneurial activity. We do own a very successful rum so an outright purchase of DIS by MBG would make sense for them as imo the value of our company is largely tied up in the value of our rum label and they have shown an interest in extending their rum range. DIS is in the process of moving it's white spirit production from the Midlands to Scotland and MBG, who are still aggressively expanding, already own several sites in Scotland, including a distillery.

What is more opaque is Roland Grain's intentions. As usual, he is typically busy ploughing his own furrow and, although a significant DIS holder, he hasn't shown much interest in us. Although normally absent (he lives in Austria), he is also the owner of Ardgowan (private company) and all the signs are that DIS and Ardgowan will be working together more closely in the coming year. We both share the Inverkip site and access to the distillation and marketing facilities, the Master Distiller and the proposed whiskies.

RG owns just under a quarter of DIS and would need to increase that to over 30% before having to make any move but, even if that was his wish, it wouldn't be easy. 50% of DIS is in strong hands, in particular RG, Rothschild, HSBC and another nominee. There are also others, some of whom I am aware, who hold amounts just below the declarable level, but possibly significant in total. It is RG's normal practice either to own the whole of a small private company, or enough of a larger company to effect influence, but he always appears happy to leave local experts to run them. He has had a long expressed intention to be deeply involved in whisky and I suspect he is quite content with his current position.

Possibly more likely is a complete outsider. If RedLeg is any threat to another producer, our market value would be pocket change to any number of very large companies, including Don Goulding's previous employer Diageo, with their fake rum, Captain Morgan. Frankly, I don't expect to see any corporate move on DIS in the next 12 months, but I would personally welcome an approach. It is notable that April 2024 will mark DG's 70th birthday and the thought of future retirement must surely have crossed his mind.

For me, my only current interest is the level of our year-end business. This is by far the busiest and most crucial period for DIS and we must all have the same desperate wish for the New Year. After 10yrs with DG at the helm, DIS is still only a penny share and our hope must be that our BoD have at long last shaped the company into something potentially successful. The TU will be available in a few weeks time and , after the several serious blunders of the past year, I confess to feeling a bit nervous. Happy New Year all, peter.
Posted at 20/12/2023 12:26 by haggismchaggis
Thanks Pete! All very intriguing!
.
I'd put my money on MBG manufacturing our spirits at it's other distilleries. This eliminates overseas shipping costs and import duties, keeping our products price competitive in many other markets.
.
There's options on how this would be structured. Licensed production with a percentage going to DIS. Contract manufacturer, where we pay them to produce and distribute. Or they link us up with their distilleries and we deal direct, leaving MBG just doing the sales and distribution in those countries.
.
Posted at 20/12/2023 10:27 by petersinthemarket
For good or ill, the fate of DIS is now in the hands of the two new business arms we have chosen, namely our in-house distribution to our key customers and our Marussia distributor for the rest.

It's very hard to get the full picture on Marussia as it is such a huge and sprawling business. The Marussia Beverages Group (MBG} is the beverages and hospitality arm of a highly diversified privately owned Swiss group called Sastre Holding SA. The holding group is owned by the Swedish Paulsen family with HQ in Switzerland. The billionaire Frederick Paulsen was knighted by the Queen in 2021.

MBG is an international producer and distributor of artisanal spirits, wines and Japanese sakes, with 14 fully owned distribution companies in 14 core markets including USA, UK, France, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. It has 16 production sites around the globe, creating high quality, innovative premium brands. It markets its brands in at least 40 countries, with centralised sales and marketing and over 1200 employees, 28 of whom are in Marussia Beverages UK Ltd, our main contact.

Even a brief look around suggests that we have made an agreement with part of a very large, complex and aggressive group who are still growing strongly through acquisition and agency agreements. MBG started small around 2004, selling vodka in Russia, but in the decade from 2012 to 2022, the urge to grow larger saw the company's revenues surge dramatically from €7m to €294m. In addition to their many own-brands they act as distributor/agent for several companies that everyone has heard of like Remy Cointreau, William Grant and Schlumberger.

MBG either owns, or co-operates, with many distilleries in several different countries in Europe and Asia. Also in Scotland, where it is the owner of Mossburn Distillers, the company behind Torabhaig distillery on Skye, plus two malt and grain distilleries in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. They have particularly strong links within their Swiss/German/Austrian business centre. I smell the hand of Roland Grain in this somewhere, but despite an intensive search, I have yet to find any solid link.

In the UK MBG state that their business is about 40% off-trade and 60% on-trade. For DIS they will distribute RedLeg, Trove, Blavod Black Vodka and Blackwoods gin and vodka.

MBG believe they are under-represented in some spirits, including rum, and plan to fix it, either by acquisition, or by setting up their own production facilities in a suitable market area.

The holding group is currently said to be in deep discussion on their future, as they believe their rapid expansion has led the company to an important inflection point in their development, where they may soon have to decide whether to stay fairly agile at their current size, or to continue aggressively acquiring in order to grow much larger. Their options are either hands-on, as now, with centralised management, or a more decentralised organisation of autonomous international branches.

For now, it seems that the plan is to continue with aggressive growth and their USA arm has just acquired Watershed Distillery for an undisclosed sum, giving it its first spirits production site in the USA.

We live in interesting times.
pete
Posted at 05/12/2023 06:24 by jimmygeeee
I doubt they have realised any profit on this "annual giveaway". They must be painfully in the red on this one!

...no bank will lend large amounts of money to a firm that has an operating loss. A rights issue was the only real non-dilutive alternative.

Make no mistake, the share price is where it is because people have seen the dwindling cash pile and were anticipating bankruptcy. This new issue should draw a line under the share price (for now), but only if shareholders approve both resolutions.
Posted at 14/11/2023 13:20 by petersinthemarket
No DIS products in our local Morrisons either. A bit concerning that some of the majors are no longer enamoured with our range. We can only hope that the work going into the new distribution arrangements will spread the word and work out well for us. The January Q3 TU will tell us if we are beginning to motor again.

As for Mr Grain, to me at least, it's not entirely clear what Roland Grain's long term intentions might be. He owns about a quarter of DIS, but he seems much more interested in Ardgowan, as whisky is the major passion for him. He is a very experienced businessman who made most of his money from staff agencies and the like in Germany and across eastern Europe. His practice has always been to buy 100% of the stock in small companies, mostly private companies, assimilate them, tidy them up and then let their original managers run them for him. Having bought Ardgowan, he appears to be doing the same thing.

DIS is a different matter. His purchase may just have been his way of buying into the UK booze industry, but I suspect there is more to it than we are seeing right now. DIS has moved a substantial part of it's business to Scotland and will be dependant on the Ardgowan site for future production of all the white spirits. The DIS scotch product, if/when it finally appears will tie us in even more closely to Grain/Ardgowan.

Grain has made no recent purchases, which would take him nearer to the mandatory offer level, but it cannot be ruled out. To put it in a nutshell, DIS has two worthwhile things to sell, RedLeg and itself. I am not implying any takeover or merger right now, but something will have to change in due course as Don Goulding is old enough and rich enough to start seeing retirement ahead.

Roland Grains part in our future is intriguing. He is averse to public companies. If he did make a move on us, and perhaps it's a big 'if', I believe his instinct would be to take the new business private as soon as possible. Personally, I might welcome some sort of move, whether from Grain or elsewhere as I see it as the only way to get out of our impasse and unlock some of the undoubted value here.
pete
Posted at 26/7/2023 14:41 by petersinthemarket
Not sure I understand your question gipps. To the best of my knowledge, for DIS, the open day was just a walk around to show off our new visitor centre and white spirit distillery installation progress. I suspect the relabelled Blackwood samples were existing stock and not new stuff from our part of the Inverkip distillery which is not quite finished yet. However, the stuff was probably made somewhere in Scotland, as we moved Blackwoods production away from the Midlands many months ago. The intention of the new home and the bottle rebranding is to pull in a lot more of the Scottish pedigree to the brand. Brand differentiation is of major importance to gin and vodka, as both are so easy for anyone to make.

The day was probably more important for Ardgowan as the Inverkip site is theirs and they are at least producing an excellent series of expensive short-run whisky blends for collectors while they wait for their new whiskies to develop (a long way off yet, up to 10yrs).

Their blends will also shortly be important to DIS when we offer our own (Ardgowan) DIS branded whisky blend.

DIS was represented on the day by our CEO. DIS is effectively bolted on to Ardgowan now as we share directors and future development interests.

The day was obviously a blinding success with 5000 visitors, some from overseas. The photos show the queue to get in.

DIS really does have a lot going for it this FY. I just hope it gets reflected in our quarterly revenues.
Posted at 07/3/2022 16:47 by petersinthemarket
Thanks for response Haggis - I keep thinking I'm last man in!

I have never bothered to look at the high strength stuff. Always seemed too expensive to me, but I take your point about using less (if I could be trusted).
I drink rum neat, so it's no good for me, but the high strength stuff might work well for those using it as a mixer.

The legal minimum for spirits in EU/UK is 37.5abv, if you want to call it rum, etc., on the label. I note that our main rum competitor, Captain Morgan, is only 35%, but they don't have rum printed on the front label. Their abv reduction may be part of the reason that they can afford to sell the stuff at a fixed price around £15, whereas RedLeg only does that via the Tesco discount price for cardholders. It usually hovers between £20/22 near me.

Must say, the DIS share price is truly shocking now. 1.15/1.30. The II's who bought at 2.00 must be disappointed. Surely this can't be to do with the war. (Sorry, peace keeping excersize). Persistant selling in fairly small quantities for weeks now. I reckon it's boredom. DIS messed things up with the placing for Ardgowan, even though it might come right in the future. We've a long wait (2025?) for a good single malt, although we should see a blend sometime this year.

If the share price keeps performing like this, I might well be the last man in.
Distil share price data is direct from the London Stock Exchange

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