Manufacturing Awards 2013: Truett-Hurst wine company grows rapidly

(NBBJ) - Since its inception six years ago, Truett-Hurst, LLC, has established itself as a fast-growing wine company focusing on the $7 to $14 per bottle (superpremium) and over-$14 (ultrapremium) per bottle categories.

Based in the Dry Creek and Russian River Valleys of Sonoma County, with company headquarters at the VML Winery at 4035 Westside Road, the company has seen sales increase from 2,616 cases in 2008 (the first full year of operations representing $466,000 in sales), to more than 160,000 cases in 2012 totaling more than $12.7 million in sales. In the past three years revenues have increased from $5 million in 2011 to an estimated $16 to $17 million this year. The company’s private label business accounts for more than 70 percent of annual revenues.

In an effort that was widely followed as a signal of support in the capital markets for the wine industry, the owners of Truett-Hurst, Inc. took the company public on June 25 offering 2.7 million shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $6 per share. The company received net proceeds of approximately $14.1 million. The shares are listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "THST."