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The
90,000-tonne capacity winery in South Australia's Riverland
is expected to add up to $50 million to the struggling wine
company's coffers.
McGuigan
Simeon also has its 20,000-tonne winery at Griffith, in the
Riverina, on the market with a price tag of about $10 million.
The
proposed sales are aimed at increasing efficiency by centralising
McGuigan Simeon's production of popular premium and bulk wines
at its 130,000-tonne Buronga winery in the Sunraysia region,
where it also owns the former Mildara winery and packaging
plant at Merbein.
The
re-sale of the Griffith winery, formerly the Miranda winery,
follows the collapse of a deal made last October with since-failed
Dal Broi Family Wines.
McGuigan
Simeon foreshadowed the sale of the Loxton winery three weeks
ago when it announced a 33 per cent cut to 158,000 tonnes
in its 2007 crush and a projected 2006-07 loss of between
$4 million and $6 million.
The
loss will compare with profits of $600,000 in 2005-06 and
$35.9 million in 2004-05.
Managing
director Dane Hudson said recently the winery , would be sold
or it would be filled with more stable wine-making agreements.
Mr
Hudson is overseas and could not be contacted.
But
chief finance officer Mike Noak said the sale was not a foregone
conclusion.
The
company was still studying an alternative of finding improved
contract processing agreements and if that happened would
probably retain the winery.
"But
we've got to look at what's out there in the market,"
he said.
Mr
Noak said the company had not heard from the administrator
of Dal Broi Family Wines about a report that its collapse
was partly due to the contract processing agreements it had
with McGuigan Simeon.
The
Loxton winery was built in 1949 by a grower co-operative.
It was sold to Penfold's in 1987, to Australian Vintage in
1993 and then in 1997 to Simeon Wines, which was taken over
by McGuigan Wines in 2002.
It
has been extensively upgraded in recent years.
The
agent selling the property Gaetjens Langley is expected to
receive strong interest from overseas, including from the
US.
Its
crush capacity ranks only behind Hardy Wine's Berri winery,
which can process 210,000 tonnes a year, Casella Wines (200,000
tonnes), McGuigan Simeon's Buronga winery (130,000 tonnes)
and Orlando Wines Barossa Valley winery (120,000 tonnes).
The
sale of the winery will be the third in the Riverland region
this year.
Junio
20 de 2007
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