Strong sales development and significant EBIT increase at half-year

Hamburg, 16 July 2020. The wine-trading group Hawesko Holding AG (HAW GR, HAWG.DE, DE0006042708) announced today that the operating result (EBIT) of the group in the first half-year of 2020 (1 January to 30 June) is expected to rise by about 50% to approximately € 13.1 million according to preliminary calculations (previous year: € 8.8 million). Sales revenues will have increased during the same period by 8.5% to € 277.6 million (previous year: € 255.8 million).

The Hawesko Group benefited from enormous growth in sales and EBIT in its E-commerce segment as well as from strong business performance in its Retail segment in Germany. The contact restrictions imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic and the closures in the hotel, restaurant and catering sectors have shifted the stocking up of wine and its consumption to private households. Overall, the positive developments in the end-customer segments E-commerce and Retail have more than compensated for the slump in sales caused by the restaurant and hotel closures in the B2B segment.

'The coronavirus crisis and the contact restrictions radically changed the market environment during the first six months of the year. Now it is clear how important it was that we developed and expanded our e-commerce business models in recent years. Due to the measures taken to control the coronavirus in the hotel and restaurant industries, we are facing a struggle in the B2B segment. All in all, in times like these our diversification within the group works to our advantage,' said Thorsten Hermelink, CEO of the Hawesko Group in Hamburg.

Hermelink added, 'Business development will remain difficult to predict for the rest of the year and will heavily depend on whether our daily life slowly returns to normal or whether stricter corona-related measures have to be re-imposed during the second half of the year. However, we currently have good reason to be optimistic that the positive business performance in our end-customer segments E-commerce and Retail will fundamentally continue, albeit not on the same scale, and hope that the hotel and restaurant sectors will recover over the course of the year.'

A detailed analysis as well as the full interim financial statements for the period to 30 June 2020 will be published in the half-year report on 6 August 2020.

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The Hawesko Group is a leading purveyor of premium wines and champagnes. In fiscal year 2019, it employed 1,200 persons in the group's three sales channels: Retail (Jacques' Wein-Depot and Wein & Co.), B2B (Wein Wolf and CWD Champagner- und Wein-Distributionsgesellschaft) and E-commerce (particularly HAWESKO and Vinos). The shares of Hawesko Holding AG are listed on the Hanseatic Stock Exchange in Hamburg as well as in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Publisher:

Hawesko Holding AG
Elbkaihaus
Grosse Elbstrasse 145d
22767 Hamburg

Internet: hawesko-holding.com (Company information)
hawesko.de (Online shop)
jacques.de (Jacques' Wein-Depot information and online shop)
vinos.de (Spanish wines)
wirwinzer.de (German wines directly from the producers)
weinco.at (Online shop)

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