30 Aug 2011

Yealands to merge with wine investment firm

8:55 am on 30 August 2011

The owner of Yealands Estate winery in Marlborough expects the merger with Wellington-based wine investment company Ager Sectus to provide employment opportunities.

Ager Sectus has interests in both Marlborough and Hawke's Bay and Yealands, one of the leading sustainable wine producers in New Zealand, owns more than 1500 hectares of grape vines.

Peter Yealands says the consolidation will provide a quality focused and efficient production model, with strong distribution networks into more than 50 international markets

"We're quite strong in about 35 countries and Ager Sectus are strong in probably 15 countries so you put the two together and it'll make us a force to be reckoned with going forward."

Mr Yealands says consolidation in the industry is the way of the future.

"All of the supermarkets which sell the bulk of the wine globally don't want thousands of suppliers, they want to count them on one hand, so you're going to get a consolidation across the board of wineries and vineyards and distributors.

Mr Yealands says there will be very few redundancies as a result of the merger and more marketing staff will be taken on.