(Reuters) - Australia's Treasury Wine Estates Ltd, the world's biggest listed standalone wine firm, said it strong sales of its top-shelf labels helped it swing back to profit in the first half.

Net profit for the maker of the Penfolds, Beringer and Wolf Blass brands was A$42.6 million ($33.21 million) for the six months to Dec. 31, a turnaround from the A$100.9 million loss it posted for the full 2014 financial year.

The first half profit was also higher than the profit for the same year-ago period, when a A$70.6 million a one-off tax gain is excluded.

"We are crawling, walking then running," Chief Executive Officer Mike Clarke told a post-earnings briefing. "There is still a lot of fixing to be done. Our result today is very much a progress update."

Under Clarke, Melbourne-based Treasury is trying to build up its more profitable high-end offerings like Penfolds, especially in the United States where an unsuccessful expansion plan under previous management resulted in the destruction of thousands of cases of cheap wine.

Clarke, brought in a year ago to turn the business around, said the firm cut inventory in all markets. It now expects to hit a target of cutting annual supply chain costs by A$35 million by mid-2015.

In keeping with Clarke's plan to build Treasury's more profitable luxury offerings, sales revenue grew 9 percent to A$882.7 million in the half, even as sales volumes shrank by 1.3 percent. Clarke also said he hoped to make a U.S. acquisition to help grow market share there, but did not give any details.

Under Clarke, Treasury in September rejected matching A$3.4 billion bids from private equity giants KKR & Co LP and partner Rhone Capital LLC, and from an unidentified firm that sources said was TPG Capital Management LP.