(Businessinsider) - The Wine Society should be celebrating right now after Australia’s oldest wine club notched up 70 years since its founding in 1946. But instead, the organisation is fighting for its continued existence after posting increasingly large losses, squeezed by the supermarket liquor retailers.

In order to survive, the Sydney-based national club is hoping its members will back a major restructure that allow external investors to prop up the balance sheet and allow the business to borrow to repay debts, including $4.2 million owed to suppliers on April 30 this year.

In the last two financial years, The Wine Society (TWS) posted $1.13 million in losses and in the first 10 months of FY16, was another $1 million in the red.

Over the same period, more than a quarter of the membership disappeared, falling from 35,798 in 2013 to 25,337.

Outlining about the restructure on the club’s website, The Wine Society says the “like every other small to medium sized wine retailer in Australia” it has “suffered from massively increased competition, led in large part by the supermarket retailers and specialist online operators”.

TWS continues:

In response to this, the Board and management have been quite candid with members about the financial pressures under which the business has been operating. As a member, you may have noticed a decline in our product range in recent times. These member-affecting issues are a direct result of credit constraints and restricted cash flow. The financial alternatives faced by the Board to continue the Co-operative on a standalone basis in future are not attractive given the significant structural changes to our industry segment.