New York, April 15 - Castle Brands Inc., an emerging global premium spirits company based in the U.S., announced today that it is restructuring its operations in Ireland and the U.K., which will permit a reduction in losses with limited impact to operations. This restructuring will result in a reduction of personnel in both offices, largely in office administration and sales. Going forward, the Castle Brands portfolio of products will be marketed in these countries primarily by third parties. Management has determined that the utilization of external vendors and/or agency agreements is a more efficient and cost effective means to sell and promote the Company's products in these regions.
John Soden, the Company's Managing Director of International Operations commented, “We have made significant progress over the past three years in building brand recognition for our products. The objective of this reorganization is to align the Company with its new business strategy, executing a clear and definitive focus in bringing the Company to profitability while maintaining growth of our brands. To that end, we have determined that the increasing use of third party vendors to market our products will help Castle Brands achieve its goals for the coming year by reducing overall costs. This was a difficult but necessary action to take, and I would like to thank each of our departing employees for their contributions to Castle Brands and wish them well in all of their future endeavors.”
Overall, the reduction in workforce is expected to save over $1.0 million annually in selling, general and administrative expense going forward, after an initial charge of approximately $100,000 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 related to severance and other expenses in connection with the reduction in workforce.
About Castle Brands
Castle Brands is an emerging developer and international marketer of premium branded spirits within four growing categories of the spirits industry: vodka, rum, whiskey and liqueurs. Castle Brands' portfolio includes Boru(R) Vodka, Gosling's Rum(R), Sea Wynde(R) Rum, Knappogue Castle Whiskey(R), Clontarf(R) Irish Whiskey, Jefferson's(TM) and Jefferson's Reserve(R) Bourbon, Sam Houston(R) Bourbon, Celtic Crossing(R) Liqueur, Pallini(R) Limoncello(TM), Raspicello(TM) and Peachcello(TM) and Brady's(R) Irish Cream.