Villa Maria to sell surplus Mangere land and consider raising capital

Villa Maria Estate is selling 31 hectares of surplus land surrounding its Mangere, Auckland headquarters. Photo / Colliers

Villa Maria, one of New Zealand's largest privately owned wineries, is selling 31ha of land surrounding its South Auckland headquarters and is exploring raising capital from investors to support its future plans.

Chief executive Justin Liddell said the company planned to invest across the value chain from viticulture and wineries to brands and marketing to meet increasing demands in key markets.

"Over the last 20 years the size of our business has quadrupled. We rolled into Covid and everyone felt that might put a bit of a dampener on demand but - touch wood - that hasn't been the case and the global demand is strong.

"So that has given us the confidence to go out and grow the business."

The land up for sale includes vineyards and bare land surrounding Villa Maria's headquarters and core business activities.

"We will continue to operate our Auckland winery, bottling, warehousing, head office and hospitality functions on the remaining 10 hectares," said Liddell.

He said the Villa Maria site in Mangere has a special place in the history of the company since founder Sir George purchased the land in 2000.

Since then the land value has increased to a point where it's not possible to generate a reasonable return on vineyards.

The land is zoned as light industrial and Liddell said any sale could run parallel to a capital raise.

He declined to say how much money the company was looking to raise.

"It's early days and we don't want to speculate on who a new investor might be or the nature or extent of the investment. We will work through the options and go from there.

"We don't expect any decisions to be made until the first quarter of next year and our day-to-day activities will go on as usual," he said.

Fistonich, who founded the wine company in 1961, stepped down as CEO in March 2018.

Villa Maria is now the leading New Zealand wine brand in the United Kingdom market by volume and value and Liddell believes there is untapped potential for the brand in the North American market and in Asia.

He said the business has hit record volumes in the year to September 30.