Halewood Artisanal Spirits has confirmed it made cuts to its workforce in the UK group's last financial year as sales came under pressure.

In a filing with Companies House, the UK business register, covering Halewood's accounts for the year to 28 June, the Whitley Neil Gin distiller said it had "reacted to inflationary pressures by a material reduction in headcount".

The number of employees in the 12 months dropped more than 40% versus 2024, from 390 to 225 people.

Halewood said it had also embarked on "further scaling back international expansion projects" in the period.

When approached by Just Drinks, marketing and sales director James Stocker said increasing expenses, including rises in National Insurance and minimum wage costs meant Halewood "is increasingly outsourcing production to Europe where costs are lower".

He added: "Unfortunately, this has led to some redundancies in the UK."

Stocker confirmed the job cuts mostly impacted production staff and the increase in production costs in the UK had meant the business had moved some production of vodka and gin to Europe.

In the 12 months to 28 June, Halewood saw net turnover decline 11% to £77.4m ($104.6m), attributed to the ending of third-party whisky contracts.

The group also saw sales of Crabbies ginger beer fall amid the pressure from US tariffs and an end to distribution in Canada because of low margins.

"The remaining bar revenues and closure of the international subsidiaries also contributed to the decline in net revenue," the business said in its annual report.

After the restructuring, Halewood said it wants to see adjusted EBITDA grow and "generate growth in operating income by focusing on its own artisanal spirits".

In the year to 28 June, the company saw adjusted EBITDA reach £6.6m, an improvement from an adjusted EBITDA loss of £7.3m in the year previous.

It booked an operating loss before exceptional items of £3.4m against one of £17.9m the year before.

Halewood reported a loss of £18.3m against a loss of £22.7m in the year to 29 June 2024.

The Dead Man's Fingers brand owner said in its outlook it was focusing on "driving down operational overhead and improving production efficiency by utilising third-party manufacture".

It added: "Artisanal spirits remain the core to the business with gin and whisky the two main categories of investment."