Treasury Wine Estates interim chief executive Warwick Every-Burns, pictured, will be replaced by Michael Clarke from Coca-Cola.

The London-based, South African-born, Mr Clarke has worked with Coke in Australia and will move to Melbourne for the job.

Mr Clarke will join TWE in March and commence a handover with Mr Every-Burns, who was drafted in from the board following Mr Dearie’s departure in September.

The announcement came as TWE reported a doubling of net profit to $106.2 million, boosted by a one-off tax windfall of $80.5m.

However earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and SGARA — an accounting adjustment for the fluctuating value of vineyard assets _ were down 38 per cent to $45.8m, as the company increased spending on marketing and distribution and faced challenging conditions in both the Asian and Australian markets.

“Overall, TWE’s first half was disappointing,” Mr Every-Burns said.

“While we had expected the first half to be below the prior year principally driven by planned lower shipments in the US and increased investment in marketing and distribution, the extent of the earnings shortfall was exacerbated by much tougher trading conditions in Asia and more recently, a number of factors in Australia.”

Mr Every-Burns said Australian sales volumes were down in the key month of December as the company reduced promotional discounts amid sharp competition in the commercial sparkling and mass-market prestige, or “masstige” white wine categories.

“Furthermore, a renewed focus on liquor inventory levels by some key customers in Australia adversely impacted volume growth in the December quarter and this is expected to continue in the second half of the fiscal year,” he said.

Mr Every-Burns said that despite the “challenging” first half result, the business and the wine industry remained attractive.

“Global supply and demand continue to move towards balance and as evidenced by the improving size and mix of our long term inventory, TWE is well positioned to satisfy the growing consumer demand for premium wine in both existing and new markets and channels,” he said.

TWE in January downgraded its full-year EBITS forecast to $190m — $210m, down from previous forecasts for a result of between $230m — $250m.

Mr Every-Burns said the second half of the financial year would be underpinned by the release of premium and luxury wines from flagship label Penfolds, including the 2009 vintage of Australia’s most-collected prestige wine, Grange.

“We are confident that the reduced availability and therefore scarcity of Penfolds Luxury and Icon wines will be more than offset by an increase in availability of Penfolds Bins,” he said.

The Bin range, which includes red wines such as Bin 128 Shiraz and Bin 407 Cabernet sauvignon, is a second-tier range of premium wines from Penfolds, most of which sell for between $25 and $80, compared to the $700-plus price ticket for Grange.

Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Simotas said he had some concerns over the forthcoming Penfolds release, and said there was some risk the company’s forecasts could yet be downgraded again.

“A CEO has been appointed which is a positive development. However, while he comes with a strong consumer goods and beverages background he does not appear to have wine experience which makes the appointment somewhat surprising to us,” Mr Simotas said.