Treasury shutters two wineries in major cost-cutting move

By Mathew Lyons

Published: 22 October, 2015

Treasury Wine Estates has announced it is to close of its two wineries.

The Matua Winery in Auckland, which includes packaging and cellar door operations, will close entirely, with its production being consolidated within TWE's Matua Marlborough Winery.

The Great Western Winery in Victoria will maintain operations while TWE considers options for the site, including a possible sale.

However, the Great Western cellar door will close by the end of June 2016. Surplus vineyards in the Great Western and Yarra Valley regions will be sold after the 2016 harvest.

TWE is aiming to remove cost and complexity from its business as it consolidates after a period of uncertainty at the company.

In 2014 it had to fend off a takeover bid from private equity firms KKR and Rhone Capital.

It has previously sold its Rycroft winery in Australia, as well as its Asti vineyards in Sonoma County, California.

Matua Pinot Noir

TWE is also due to close its Karadoc warehouse next year.

It bought the bulk of Diageo's wine businesses last week for £390 million.

Bob Spooner, chief supply officer at TWE, said: "Over the last two years, TWE has completed a multi-million dollar expansion of the Matua Marlborough winery in one of New Zealand's internationally renowned winemaking regions.

"It is a state of the art facility capable of handling the vast majority of TWE's New Zealand wine making requirements, so it makes sense to simplify and consolidate our production into one operation.

"In Australia, the size and location of the Great Western winery means it is both under- utilised and increasingly non-viable as a production facility, so we are ceasing operations and moving production into other wineries in TWE's Australian wine production network in order to reduce costs and remove unnecessary complexity."

TWE remains committed to its Seppelt and Matua brands.

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