ONE of Australia’s largest independent wine producers, Littore Wine Group, is on the market.
The assets include a staggering 1070 hectares of vineyards across five properties and a large modern winery and warehousing/packaging facility.
Colliers International’s Tim Altschwager and Nick Dean have been appointed by Receivers and Managers, Ferrier Hodgson to sell the portfolio of vineyards near Mildura and the large commercial winery and packaging facilities, at Geelong in Victoria.
In a statement, Mr Altschwager said Littore Wine Group was a large vertically integrated wine business founded more than 40 years ago by the Littore family.
“Littore’s vineyards are primarily located on the NSW side of the River Murray in the Murray Darling wine region, near the rural city of Mildura.
"There is one additional 11ha vineyard situated alongside the business’ winery, bottling facility and head office near Geelong in Victoria,” he said.
“The high yielding vineyards have been expertly established and maintained by the Littore family and have produced an average of around 30,000 tonnes over the past four vintages.
"The largest single vineyard in the portfolio is the impressive Arlington vineyard with plantings of approximately 739ha on 6850ha of land situated near Wentworth NSW.”
The impressive Littore winery incorporates tank storage of approximately 18 million litres, a crush capacity of approximately 15,000 tonnes, an extensive warehousing and packaging centre and administrative facilities.
Mr Altschwager said the vineyards and the winery were being offered for sale separately or as a whole.
“Given the huge scale of the offering, and current strong conditions in this sector, we are expecting significant interest from a wide range of buyer groups, both domestic and offshore,” he said.
“The market for agricultural assets is improving, we are receiving strong interest in quality, large-scale properties with substantial water entitlements.
"The Littore portfolio boasts around 7000 megalitres of high security water, which we expect will attract significant interest in its own right.
“This also opens up the possibility that the properties might attract alternate uses, such as the potential conversion to almonds or cotton, which broadens the appeal of what is already one of the most significant wine industry offerings that’s come to the market.”
