Winemaking giant Treasury Wine Estates has beaten expectations and returned to profit growth despite losing nearly $80 million in earnings due to China’s shock tariffs over the past financial year.

Treasury told investors on Thursday its net profit after tax, excluding significant items and accounting standard SGARA, grew 3 per cent to $309.6 million for the year, slightly ahead of analyst expectations and an improvement on last year when earnings dropped 25 per cent.

Total sales at the business fell 3 per cent to $2.5 billion and the company declared a 13 cent per share final dividend, a 62.5 per cent increase on the prior year’s final dividend.

Treasury has been making efforts to restructure its business and redistribute its wine after its largest and most lucrative market, China, was effectively cut off last year due to punitive tariffs imposed by the Chinese government.

The company, which produces the famed Penfolds range, said it had lost $77.3 million in earnings in China thanks to the tariffs, but noted this was mostly offset by growth across other regions in Asia such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Total earnings for the region fell 15 per cent.

Treasury’s US business continued to perform strongly, raising its earnings by 23 per cent to $168.3 million, thanks largely to the company’s mid-priced Premium Brands division, led by Snoop Dogg-supported drop 19 Crimes.

Australian earnings gained 10 per cent to $142.7 million. Chief executive Tim Ford said the result was a testament to Treasury’s resilience in the face of a tough year.

“F21 was a year of both significant change and achievement for our business, with the financial results we have announced today a testament to the commitment and strength of our global teams,” he said.

“Most pleasingly, despite a backdrop of significant external disruption, we have delivered on the priorities we set for ourselves at the start of the year, and therefore we remain very well placed to deliver on the long-term growth ambitions we set out in our TWE 2025 strategy.”

Looking to the current financial year, Mr Ford said the company would continue its focus outside of China and warned that costs would remain elevated due to the higher costs of last year’s premium vintages.

Short-term impacts of COVID remained uncertain, he said, noting areas such as travel retail remained severely impacted by the pandemic.