Today's gains come after the company gave an overview of its maturing spirit inventory and net sales value.

Let's take a closer look at what Top Shelf released today and what other tailwinds are behind the beverage manufacturer's share price lately.

Inventory and net sales value

Top Shelf announced that, as of 30 June, it had maturing spirits with a net sales value of $272 million.

This signifies a 521% year-on-year increase, and a 124% increase above its prospectus.

Top Shelf's total spirit inventory increased to 3.5 million litres, representing a 410% increase from one year ago.

The company also realised an average net sales value per litre for NED whisky of $71.40, a 23% increased from 1H FY21.

To arrive at these calculations, Top Shelf "engaged PwC to perform certain procedures on the calculations and methodology".

Investors have relished the announcement, driving the Top Shelf share price higher.

What other tailwinds are behind Top Shelf's share price?

The company also reported its unaudited FY 2021 earnings results on 14 July. Here, the company recorded unaudited revenue of $20 million.

These results signified a 160% year-on-year growth from 30 June 2020, matching the forecasts in the company's prospectus.

Top Shelf also reported "branded product revenue" of $12.7 million, a 211% increase from the $4 million in FY 2020.

Investors are buying into the company's growth narrative following the results, pushing the Top Shelf share price 25% into the green over the previous 5 trading sessions.

Top Shelf share price snapshot

The Top Shelf share price has posted a return of 2.5% this year to date, after a gradual run-down from highs of $2.20 in March.

The company's share price hit a low of $1.61 at the close on 13 July, however has since climbed 30% since these two announcements.

Top Shelf has a market capitalisation of $90 million at the time of writing.

The post Why the Top Shelf International (ASX:TSI) share price soared 15% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

That might not look like much of a top move. But considering the broader S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is currently down a hefty 1.96% today, its actually a pretty decent outperformance.

High spirits for the Top Shelf share price today

Top Shelf reported earnings for the first half of the 2021 financial year (1H21) this morning. This is Top Shelf's first report as a listed ASX company since it only IPO-ed on the ASX back in December.

The company reported that revenues came in at $7.23 million, which was a 159% increase on the prior corresponding period's (1H20) $2.3 million. That included branded sales growth of 168%. This follows the company's launch of NED Whiskey in September last year, and the launch of Grainshaker Vodka in October.

That total revenue metric represented an increase of 1.7% for Top Shelf's gross cash margin to 23.3%.

However, pro forma earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) went backwards. It fell 129% from a loss of $1.6 million in 1H20 to a loss of $3.6 million for 1H21. Statutory EBITDA fell from a loss of $1.6 million in 1H20 to a loss of $7.1 million in 1H21.

That lead to a proforma loss after income tax of $3.1 million, up 102% from 1H20's loss of $1.5 million. The company's statutory loss after income tax was $6.7 million, up 345% from the $1.5 million loss in 1H20.

Big investments from Top Shelf

Top Shelf tells us that these losses are the result of "continued investment in working capital", which includes $1.6 million for facilities for maturing whiskey in a second whiskey lauter at its Campbellfield distillery. It also includes a $2.2 million cost of brand development for the formerly mentioned products. Over the period, Top Shelf's whiskey inventory on hand increased from 105,000 litres of alcohol to 388,000.

The company also spent $2.2 million on acquiring the Eden Lassie agave farm in December (agave is used to make tequila).

As of 31 December, Top Shelf had a net cash position of $9.1 million.

Top Shelf CEO Drew Fairchild had this to say on the results today:

Top Shelf is focused on executing our growth plans in the second half of FY21 including accelerating the market penetration of our portfolio of distinctive Australian spirits brands…

… the continued build-out of the NED Whisky and GrainshakerVodkabrand and product portfolios…

… [as well as the] ongoing development of the Eden Lassie agave farm and agave market opportunity in dry north Queensland with the secure supply of 244,000 hardening plants in nursery, and the completion of the Agave Brand work and release to market of our Australian Agave spirit.

The post Top Shelf (ASX:TSI) share price pops on first earnings report appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.