Giesen Wines offered for sale

STEPHEN GOODENOUGH/ Press

GRAPES OF FROTH: Harvest time at Giesen Wines, in the wairau, the company is for sale.

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Giesen Wines has been offered for sale by a pioneering Canterbury winemaking family Theo, Alex and Marcel Giesen.

The brothers started the business in 1981 near Burnham before moving it to Marlborough and boosting annual sales to about $25 million. They have engaged Rabobank Group to co-ordinate the sale of the business based around 12 vineyards and a winery, but have not disclosed the price wanted or the timeframe for the sale process.

Marcel Giesen said they had had approaches by parties interested in buying Giesen Wines but the three brothers decided they wanted a more open process with all interested buyers.

The brothers – originally from Neustadt in the German winegrowing region of Rheinpfalz – agreed it was time to move on, he said. "I guess no-one will live forever, so you have to be realistic at what time point that you continue (or not with) something you can be quite proud of. I think we have done that."

Giesen Wines had got to a size and scale where there was an opportunity for a buyer to take it to the next level, Giesen said. Whether or not more capital needed to be injected would be the choice of someone who bought the business, he added. Buyer inquiries had come from both New Zealand and international parties.

The firm sold its vineyards near Burnham, south of Christchurch, at Christmas 2006. The brothers sold to an employee of the company who had rebranded that business Canterbury Vineyards.

Giesens now owned more than 260 hectares of "prime" Marlborough vineyards in addition to a winery. It had recently completed spending $3.5m on the winery at Blenheim's Riverlands Estate, plus a Christchurch bottling and packaging facility.

The reputation of New Zealand wines was still growing overseas, but with plenty of room for further development, Giesen said.

By December 2006, Giesens was New Zealand's sixth-largest wine company, and is targeting sales of over 350,000 cases of Marlborough sauvignon blanc.

Marcel Giesen said he and his wife continued to run their own smaller Bell Hill vineyard in North Canterbury.

- © Fairfax NZ News