Well presented, but all scripted so not hard to come across...

Well presented, but all scripted so not hard to come across well. I thought he did quite well on the Q&A, albeit not very hard hitting questions. Key takeways for me are;

1. He is here because he thinks he can drive success (and readthrough make a bucket of $ over the next few yrs on his incentives)
2. He believes Lark is the best brand in AUS (or is at least in a position to be the best brand)... He talked about story telling, and lark has the runs and the history behind it to lead that space. He has impressive experience in Asia (already known), taking a dysfunctional part of the WG&S business, with no real business base, and becoming the fasting growing Whisky business in Asia... If this isn't the guy you want leading Lark into Asia, then what do you want...
3. I was encouraged by the ongoing reference back to reviewing the business and refining the strategy - Seems like October we will get a full business strategy update. He wasn't saying the strategy was wrong, but more implying the execution needs work, marketing needs to be more targeted, distributor selection and relationships need to be on point.
4. They certainly haven't committed to Pontville. They are still early stages on that path, and my view is that they don't need that capacity currently anyway, so don't waste time on it this year - focus on selling!!! And he sort of implied it isn't a core focus to get that ready for construction yet (i.e. he said he had only had one or two brief conversations about the new distillery)... This was the best news of the call, as delays the capex, and gives more time to get into positive CF territory (i.e. the current cash balance should be plenty to get the strategy execution right and grow sales).. before bringing on the additional capacity...

He is undertaking broker calls and large shareholder meetings this week, will be interesting to see if they top up down here off the back of that...

GLTAH... DYOR.