UPDATE 1-Stock Spirits urges shareholders to reject Western Gate proposals

(Corrects currency to euros from pounds in seventh paragraph)

By Martinne Geller

LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Stock Spirits Group has urged its shareholders to vote against resolutions proposed by its top shareholder which it says would require significant extra spending along with the addition of more board members.

Stock carried out the main change sought by Western Gate Private Investments on Monday, when it announced the early retirement of its chief executive, Chris Heath.

Western Gate is the private family office of Portuguese businessman Luis Amaral, who is also CEO of Eurocash (LSE: 0LTM.L - news) , Stock Spirits (Other OTC: SPPGF - news) ' biggest customer in Poland.

Regarding Western Gate's remaining proposals - to nominate two additional directors of its choosing and a board-level review of its M&A strategy - the London-listed company called them "unnecessarily disruptive and detrimental to the majority of shareholders".

Stock Spirits will host its annual general meeting on 23 May and its chairman, David Maloney, plans to meet with other major shareholders this week.

Maloney told Reuters that the board does not think it needs additional directors, and does not view Amaral's nominees as independent, given that they have been nominated by him outside of the typical vetting process. While the nominees both have significant experience in the drinks industry, neither has worked in Poland or for a UK Plc, Maloney said.

Maloney said Stock might then have to nominate two additional directors to maintain the board's independence and with annual salaries of 70,000 euros ($80,000) each, plus travel costs to attend board meetings, Maloney estimated four new directors would cost the company as much as 400,000 euros a year.

Western Gate this month called for the ouster of Stock Spirits' chief executive, saying management had "run out of ideas" about how to stem market share losses in its biggest market, Poland.

Stock Spirits has since reported an operating profit in Poland for the first quarter, after revenue soared 71 percent.

Stock's shares were up 0.5 percent at 1014 GMT on Tuesday.

($1 = 0.8797 euros) (Additional reporting by Rahul B in Bengaluru; editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Jason Neely)