The New Zealand wine industry appears in good heart as increased profitability drives industry-wide optimism.
The Deloitte Vintage 2014 survey tracked the financial results of wineries accounting for more than 40% of the industry's export sales revenue for the 2014 financial year.
For the first time since 2007, every category showed profitability before tax, ranging from 3.3% to 17.6%, Deloitte partner Peter Felstead said.
''This year's results continue a trend of increasing profitability we have seen for the last four years and shows the turnaround is increasingly sustainable.''
The survey results underpinned a renewed optimism in the wine industry after a period of supply imbalances, high external debt levels, the global financial crisis and impacts of bulk wine sales, he said.
The 2014 harvest was a record 445,000 tonnes of grapes, up from the record 2013 vintage of 345,000 tonnes.
The industry seemed to have learned from its past experiences with oversupply and had been able to deal with the increase by being able to realise revenue out of excess and avoiding having large volumes remaining on hand, Mr Felstead said.
The most profitable revenue band in this year's survey, with an average profit of 17.6%, was wineries earning more than $20 million.
That was followed by the $10 million to $20 million category at 13.7%, the $5 million to $10 million category at 7.2% and the $1.5 million to $5 million and the up to $1.5 million categories at 3.3% each.
''In general, the survey results show profitability increases with size. Larger wineries can achieve economies of scale while reporting the lowest proportional general and administrative costs.''
Successful business models existed within the smaller wineries but the survey results appeared to show it was more difficult to generate acceptable returns at the smaller end of the market, Mr Felstead said.
It was estimated the wine industry had an annual turnover of about $2 billion, with $1.36 billion of it coming from export earnings.
The importance of exports to the industry was a trend noted in previous surveys and was again prominent in 2014, he said.
Exchange rates continued to be the top issue facing the industry.
The survey showed marketing product overseas and excise and other levies were the next two top concerns.
The 2014 survey was the fifth in a row exchange rates had been the top concern and, this year, all categories with the exception of the up to $1.5 million and $5 million to $10 million categories rated it as their top issue.
Marketing product overseas ranked highly for wineries with less than $20 million turnover, which was representative of the degree and advantage larger wineries had with their established distribution and channels in foreign markets, Mr Felstead said.
This year, interest rates was the fourth most important issue overall, a move from last year which had ''grape supply-too little'' as the fourth most important issue overall.
It was unsurprising the too little supply issue moved down the scale given the records harvests in 2014 and 2013, he said.
