Treasury Wine poised to cut jobs, slash costs

(SMH) - The world's biggest listed wine company, Treasury Wine Estates, could be set to shed jobs and slash its costs in the face of a protracted downturn in its key markets.

In his opening remarks to analysts and investors this morning, Treasury Wines boss Michael Clarke admitted ''there is a lot that needs to be fixed'' at the winemaker, which owns brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Rosemount.

He confirmed the company needed a leaner cost base and that all options were on the table to improve shareholder value.

Treasury Wines could also be planning the sale of some of its poorer performing and commercial wine brands.

Mr Clarke told analysts this morning that 83 brands in the portfolio could be too many to operate successfully.

He said he wasn't ''emotionally attached'' to any particular wine brand and was prepared to sell off labels as required.

''If those brands are better off in someone else's hands than our hands, so be it,'' Mr Clarke said.

He said the ''peanut butter approach'' of spreading marketing investment into all of the company's brands was not working with Treasury Wine's getting better value for money by supporting its key premium brands and some bottom end commercial wines that are popular with consumers.

There would also need to be excess costs taken out of Treasury Wine's supply chain

Treasury Wines owns a huge portfolio of brands in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. They are the legacy of billions of dollars in acquisitions made by the company when it was part of brewer Foster's. Mr Clarke said he had started to form the view Treasury Wine's brand portfolio looked too big, and that this made it difficult to treat all brands in the portfolio the same way.

He said other underperforming wine brands that weren't sold would be polished up to generate shareholder value. Savings made from cost reductions would be invested in marketing and brand support