MediaWorks buys supplies from boss' own vineyard

MediaWorks has bought multiple cases of wine from Mr Weldon's Terra Sancta winery in Central Otago over the past year. Photo / Supplied

From the photocopy machine to the after-work drinks, MediaWorks' boss Mark Weldon is a pervasive influence at the broadcaster he has run for a year.

MediaWorks has bought multiple cases of wine from Mr Weldon's Terra Sancta winery in Central Otago over the past year.

The former boss of the NZ Stock Exchange has also spoken of the message to staff of "fiscal responsibility in all things", which sits behind a new policy that has seen the single-page print option disabled on company photocopiers.

A spokeswoman for the broadcaster, which owns TV3 and RadioLive, confirmed wine had been bought from Mr Weldon's Terra Sancta.

The wine sells for upwards of $25 a bottle, largely riesling, pinot gris and pinot noir. It is understood MediaWorks paid about $20 each for hundreds of bottles.

A spokeswoman for the company described Media-Works as buying the wine at "cost".

In a statement, she said: "All board members are aware MediaWorks has accessed Terra Sancta wines [at better-than- commercial terms] for hospitality and marketing purposes. It has been disclosed appropriately and there is no issue."

She said "there could have been an appearance of conflict" and "this was disclosed and dealt with appropriately".

The winery's website explains its name: "It means 'sacred earth', or, in modern Kiwi, 'special dirt'."

It also speaks to Mr Weldon's ownership, saying: "Mark sees Terra Sancta as a lifetime commitment, a lifetime of learning, and lot of hard hard work!"

In an interview with the Herald last year, Mr Weldon was asked his strategy for making the winery successful. He said: "I have always had a view that strategy is nothing more complex than having a single organising idea for your business and doing absolutely every single thing consistent with that."

Asked if it was making money, he said the company plan was on track. "Our value-creation strategy is to focus on a mix of brand, land and cashflow."

As MediaWorks moved on debt, it created new savings policies across the company including one that disabled the single-page option on photocopiers and limited the machines to black-and-white printing.

Mr Weldon confirmed the photocopying practice. "These things have some symbolic aspect - when people start focusing on things everyone notices, you are sending a signal that people expect fiscal responsibility in all things," he says.

Other well-known Kiwis with Otago vineyards are Prime Minister John Key, who own shares in Highwater Vineyard through a blind trust.

Actor Sam Neill's Two Paddocks vineyard is in the region.

Director Roger Donaldson owns a vineyard next door to Neill which makes wine under the label Sleeping Dogs, the name of the first film the pair made together.