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Treasury and Accolade join forces on wine packaging

Published:  24 July, 2012

Two of Australia's biggest wine companies Treasury Wine Estates and Accolade Wines have joined forces on the packing front to "increase efficiencies".

Two of Australia's biggest wine companies Treasury Wine Estates and Accolade have joined forces on the packing front to "increase efficiencies".

Treasury will pack wines for Accolade in Australia, while Accolade will bottle wines for Treasury at its Bristol plant in the UK.

Accolade's chief executive Troy Christensen described the move as creating a "new paradigm for the industry".

"We were faced with the difficult realisation that the best option for our business, and for the Australian industry was to ensure that the most efficient facilities were fully utilised even if they were not our own.

"This is a very significant decision for the Australian wine industry. It recognises that we are in the business of producing wine and getting it to consumers. Just as we do not own all our own vineyards, or all our own trucks, we don't have to own every piece of equipment that helps us get wine to the consumers' glass."

The changes mean that Accolade will increase production at its Avonmouth plant by 30%, although it is making 175 people redundant at its Reynella facility in Australia.

Stuart McNab, chief supply officer for TWE, said the arrangements would use the best and most efficient assets of both companies.

"We have put a big focus on increasing efficiencies in our supply network and this new arrangement with Accolade will leverage these efficiencies by utilising spare capacity in our Australian facilities."

Up to now, TWE has used several providers for wine packaging in England, but
under the new arrangements, this will all be consolidated to Bristol.

David Dearie, chief executive for TWE, said: "Both businesses compete in the global wine market and these new arrangements will enable us to better capitalise on our resources and state of the art facilities in the regions where we can best leverage the benefits."

The new arrangements will start in the next few weeks with both companies
increasing their volumes over the next six months. Full packaging volumes are expected to be reached by January 2013.

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