Shares in the boutique brewer, Moa, fell more than 6% on Monday after saying it expects to report an annual loss between $5 million and $6 million.
That's more than double the company's prospectus forecast in its prospectus a year ago of a $2.5 million loss for the 12 months to March 2014.
The brewer says its transition to taking control of its New Zealand distribution was difficult and led to low sales in August and September which will hurt its first-half results due to be reported on 19 November.
Moa says sales volume recovered in October and it had good pre-sales for November.
The company now expects to sell 136,000 cases of beer in the year compared with the 195,000 cases forecast in the prospectus.
Its share price closed at 75c on Monday, down 6.25%, as 114,000 shares changed hands.
Moa chief executive Geoff Ross says the new distribution model is now working very well and the company is growing fast, although not as fast as expected a year ago.
The company's manufacturing gross profit margin will be lower because it needs to continue contract brewing.
That's because its plans to expand its brewery near Blenheim have been stymied at least temporarily by appeals against its resource consent.