Egm X-ray: Masi Agricola diversifies into wine tourism to cope with US tariffs
Investment in wine tourism to contain the consequences of US policy and the decline in wine consumption
Key points
According to the Chinese calendar, 17 February 2026 marked the beginning of the Year of the Fire Horse, which indicates vital energy, dynamism and transformation. It is no coincidence that Masi Agricola has launched a new limited edition of Amarone Classico, the Costasera Lunar New Year of the Horse, vintage 2020 (preceded by three limited editions dedicated to the Dragon, the Snake and the Rabbit).
The numbers
And Masi Agricola certainly needs dynamism and transformation as wine consumption continues to fall and the 15% tariffs introduced in the US market weigh heavily. However, the Veronese group has already embarked on a diversification strategy characterised by significant investments in wine tourism and more generally in the 'wine experience'. The year 2025 closed with a 3.7% drop in revenues to €64.4 million (-1.9% at constant exchange rates); in particular, in Italia, turnover fell by 1.3% to €20.9 million, in other European countries by 6.9% to €19.2 million (2024 had benefited from revenues from a limited edition for a Swiss customer), in the Americas by 2.8% to €21.9 million and in the rest of the world by 5.7% to €2.4 million. Not taking into account the one-off effect in Switzerland and the negative impact of exchange rates, the drop in revenue in 2025 would have been 0.81%.
On 29 May 2025 the new Monteleone21 production/tourist/experiential centre was inaugurated, which includes, in addition to a wine shop and the Locanda Costasera restaurant-bistrot, a multimedia auditorium and other spaces in which institutional, corporate and private events can be held. In addition, at the end of 2025, the Masi Wine Bar & Restaurant at Verona's "Valerio Catullo" airport was opened in collaboration with Lagardère Travel Retail. These very recent initiatives do not yet have a significant impact on the group's results - hopefully they will in the future - but they are fully part of the Masi Wine Experience.
Meanwhile, the group's ebitda increased by 8.9% to EUR 6.6 million (+6.3% to EUR 7.1 million); this despite the fact that personnel costs increased by 5% to EUR 11.5 million due to the opening of the Monteleone21 visitor centre. Costs for services, on the other hand (including also non-recurring costs related to the assumption of the status of benefit company in 2024 and to the Monteleone21 visitor centre in 2021) remained almost unchanged at around EUR 23.8m. However, the improvement in ebitda was determined by an 11.1% decrease in the cost of purchasing and production of goods sold to Euro 23.7 million (the vinification of Amarone 2025 was carried out in the financial year of the financial statements instead of the following one as usual, due to the weather conditions during the harvest period), as well as the presence of other income, which increased from Euro 1.2 million to Euro 2 million and is to be considered partly non-recurring (higher CMO contributions for wine-growing companies and compensation for hail damage).
Low debt levels and long maturities
It goes without saying, however, that the significant investments made affected the level of depreciation and amortisation, which in fact went from EUR 4.3 million to EUR 4.9 million; as a result, ebit dropped by 6.3% to EUR 1.67 million. But above all, the negative balance of financial management worsened from 2.2 to 2.9 million, also due to the presence of foreign exchange losses of 187,000 euro against income of 467,000 euro in 2024 (in addition to financial income that dropped from 278,000 to only 39,000 euro following the disposal of financial assets in 2024). Thus, the net loss jumped from EUR 1.07m to EUR 1.43m (+33.7%). Net financial debt (including leasing liabilities) increased from EUR 36.1m at the end of 2024 to EUR 37.7m as at 31.12.2025; however, this is a completely physiological level given that the Debt/Equity ratio is 0.28 times.
