Chapel Down, the Kent-based wine producer, has revealed it expects its 2024 harvest to be below its forecast and has abandoned plans for a sale of the company.

In an update, the AIM-quoted company said it expects its full year net sales revenue to be a low, single digit decline from the previous year.

Chapel Down said it was the largest brand in English wine with 42% awareness, 16% penetration and a social media following of more than 120,000. It has 1,024 planted acres of vineyards, which is around 10% of the UK’s total.

In late June this year, the company had said it was mulling a sale as part of a strategic review into funding options for its growth plans, which included new vineyards and a purpose built winery.

But in the latest stock market statement, it told investors that “having evaluated a number of opportunities, this review is now complete, with the board concluding that there were no transactions that would create superior long term shareholder value than Chapel Down remaining a stand-alone AIM listed company”.

On this year’s harvest, Chapel Down said it was nearly complete and that it “will be of a high quality with particular similarities noted with the 2019 vintage, but of a lower yield than the exceptional 2023 and the 5-year average harvests”.

It added that it expected it to come in at around 1,875 tonnes (2023: 3,811 tonnes, 2022: 2,050 tonnes, 2021: 1,450 tonnes), which was below its forecast.

In terms of trading, while sparkling wines sales in the third quarter had improved and Off-trade (supermarkets for example) stockholdings have been reduced to normal levels, there remained some ongoing pressure on rate of sale in the Off-trade, the firm added.

Chapel Down said it expected continued double-digit sales growth for the year in the On-trade, Export and Direct to Consumer channels, and the company has strong consumer and customer promotional plans in place for Q4.

The smaller than expected harvest will result in the company booking a non-cash charge of between £750,000 and £850,000 for the full year relating to fair value adjustment on biological assets, it added.

In September this year, the firm announced the resignation of CEO Andrew Carter, with him set to start new role as CEO at Timothy Taylor & Co Ltd in 2025.

It came as the winery also revealed its half-year profit had plunged 22% in the six months to June 30 compared to the year-earlier period, while sales were also down by 11%.