British wine and spirits merchant Berry Bros & Rudd reported a pre-tax loss of £11.35 million in the 12 months to 31 March 2015.
Turnover at the family-owned drinks business fell by 5.1 per cent to £142 million, compared to £149.7 million in the previous year, according to thedrinksbusiness.com.
A large part of the loss was due to an exceptional cost of £5.74 million related to ongoing litigation and debt recovery with a former Hong Kong-based distributor. Its operating loss was £4.18 million.
BBR's chairman Simon Berry said that the company's performance was well short of expectations. "The delivery of our business performance was also slower than we anticipated most evidently in Asia,” he added.
Despite the losses the company's directors said they are optimistic about future growth, as activity in its en primeur market remained steady overall.
Dan Jago, Tesco's former wine boss, became the company's new chief executive in August.
