Scales buys Hawke's Bay apple grower for $20.5m

The Scales subsidiary, Mr Apple, is buying Hawke's Bay apple grower Longview for $20.5 million.

NZX-listed fruitgrowing and logistics company Scales Corp said it would buy Hawke's Bay apple grower Longview Group Holdings for $20.5 million in cash and debt.

Christchurch-based Scales said its subsidiary, Mr Apple, would buy all the shares in Longview, a standalone Hawke's Bay grower, packer, and marketer of apples. Longview leases 76 hectares of orchard and bare land under long term leases.

The transaction also includes the purchase of 22 ha of orchard immediately surrounding the Longview packhouse and coolstore and a lease of a further 17 hectares of orchard from parties associated with Longview shareholders.

Scales managing director, Andy Borland, said Longview was a well-established horticultural business in the Hawke's Bay with a successful history of growing, packing, storing and marketing apples.

The transaction increases Mr Apple's total planted apple orchard by about 85 ha, with a further 30 ha of bare land for future development of premium apples.

Longview operates a modern packhouse and coolstore built in 2006 with a further coolstore extension completed last year. Scales has three operating divisions - horticulture, storage and logistics and food ingredients. The company's shares last traded at $3.10.