Lion roams Marlborough for possible winery purchase

By NZPA

Thursday 25th July 2002

After missing out on Montana Wines last year, Lion Nathan is keeping mum on whether it is close to purchasing a Marlborough winery.

The company has been on a fact-finding mission in the province, and investor relations manager Warwick Bryan said Lion had made no secret of the fact it was keen to add a Marlborough winery to its portfolio. But he declined to say how many companies it was looking at.

Lion Nathan lost the battle to take over New Zealand's Montana Wines, with British-based Allied Domecq securing the company after a lengthy court battle. Since then Lion has gone on to buy South Australian wineries, spending close to $A290 million ($NZ333.94 million).

One of the reasons Lion was so keen to purchase Montana, was because of its production of Marlborough sauvignon blanc. Mr Bryan said the company was still keen to secure the variety to plug a couple of holes in its portfolio.

"We see ourselves as being a premium wine company and we want to have globally-recognised wines as top of the line. There are two areas we are missing, sauvignon blanc from Marlborough because it is recognised as one of the great places, and chardonnay from the Margaret River. We are not looking production-wise, the major issue for us is quality."

Mr Bryan confirmed he had been in the province, but said a newspaper article that mentioned three wineries Lion could be interested in, was incorrect. The wineries were Hunter's, Vavasour and Wither Hills.

Hunter's general manager Peter MacDonald said they were not interested in selling. Allan Dickinson, Vavasours' managing director, said they had not been approached by Lion but they also had no intention of selling.

However, Brent Marris from Wither Hills confirmed Lion had approached him, along with nine other Marlborough wineries.

"It's not the first time we have been approached. A month ago we had an offer, three months ago an American company wanted to buy. We are used to this sort of thing."

Mr Marris said offers were "always something to consider", but would not comment further on Lion's interest.

Wither Hills, which has grown from a 10,000 case production three years ago, to more than 85,000 cases this year is likely to be of high interest to Lion.

Producing award-winning sauvignon, the label has already established a loyal following in both the United States and England. Despite substantial growth, all of this year's production has had to be allocated.

Mr Bryan said while Lion was keen, he could not place a timeframe on how long it would be prepared to search for a winery.

He also would not comment on whether Lion was a bidder for the six vineyards currently being sold by Ngai Tahu.

The Marlborough Express has said it understood the vineyards had been sold, but could not confirm it.

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