Major Australian drinks brand Billson’s has been declared into voluntary bankruptcy.
Husband and wife team Nathan and Felicity Cowan ran the historic brewery in Beechworth, north-east Victoria.
Billson’s grew in popularity after its ready-to-drink canned vodka, craft beer and cordial came to market. It was founded in 1865.
However, the brewery was hit by a series of challenges, including a drop in customer spending and high government excise duty on spirits.
“Over the past seven years, everyone’s hard work and passion has resulted in overwhelming support from people across Australia and incredible business growth,” the founders said.
Unfortunately, that growth masked some of the mistakes we made along the way because our systems and processes couldn’t keep up.
“We are ultimately responsible for these mistakes, and we know we have let people down. We are devastated and sorry.”
Mr and Mrs Cowan said spirits producers in Australia pay the third highest excise duties in the world, which has an impact on cash flow.
It was expected that that tax would increase
Major Australian drinks brand Bilson’s has filed for voluntary bankruptcy
The company’s demise comes despite annual revenue rising to around $120 million in 2023-24, up from $100 million a year earlier.
Rob Smith and Matthew Hutton of McGrathNicol have been appointed administrators.
In January, Billson had about 200 employees.
In February, however, the company had already halved that number to 100 to cut costs, and executives plan to cut even more jobs.
