Giesen Wines Offered for Sale

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10th September 2007 MEDIA RELEASE

Giesen Wines Offered for Sale

One of New Zealand’s most successful wine companies Giesen Wines has announced it is placing its business on the market.

Giesen Wines is one of the largest wine companies in New Zealand and owns over 650 acres of prime Marlborough vineyards in addition to a winery. It is one of the country’s leading producers of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, targeting sales of over 350,000 cases for the current financial year.

The company has grown rapidly over recent years, capitalising on the strong demand for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, and as a result has received a number of unsolicited approaches to buy the business.

Due to the substantial growth of the Giesen brand, particularly in Australia, the number of purchase enquiries has intensified during 2007.

The company has engaged Rabobank Group to exclusively co-ordinate the sale of the business.

Giesen Wines was founded 26 years ago by Theo, Alex and Marcel Giesen who were amongst the original pioneers in the New Zealand wine industry. The company exports the majority of its product to markets such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Giesen Wines general manager Jim Veitch said: “the company has been very successful, with both sales and profitability growing rapidly in recent years. Demand has been unprecedented and we have experienced significant growth – especially in the Australian market. Having a consistently high quality product, combined with close partnerships with leading distributors and major supermarket chains in Australia has resulted in the Giesen Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc brand becoming highly sought after”.

It is believed there is real interest in the company from a number of parties. However if interest in the company does not for some reason reach their expectations, the Giesens intend to continue with the business as they are highly confident that it has a strong future.

Mr Veitch said: “the opportunity to purchase a company with Giesens’ proven track record, quality staff and size is limited in the New Zealand wine industry. The commercial focus on a quality product on a high volume, low cost production base had resulted in a highly profitable business. There is continued potential for further expansion of the business, with extension into new markets and product range. On a regular basis we receive enquires from new markets, such as China, France and Sweden. The Canadian market also offers significant potential.

“The increasing global recognition and demand for our New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, as reflected in recently released strong NZ-Wine industry export projections, is likely to underpin our growth."

ENDS

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