Rathbone Wine Group up for sale

Besides the estates that are to be sold, a spacious bottling plant in Melbourne, named “14 degrees” as well as the “Four Seasons Fine Wines” society that has been organizing the wine sale so far.

Doug Rathbone entered the wine trade in 1996 by purchasing the Yering Station; he continued by overtaking the other estates in 2002 and in 2005. Despite steadily growing turnovers in the past 16 years - at the end of the last decade, the group obtained 110 million AUD (about 87 million euro) - the group reported, in 2011, a loss of 2 million AUD (about 1.6 million euro) and a turnover of 39 million AUD (about 31.5 million euro). The figures for 2010 are in sharp contrast to this; then, the group obtained a profit of 50.7 million AUD (about 41 million euro).

Finally, it was a sum of factors that made ripen Doug Rathbone’s decision to separate from big parts of his investments and companies. The losses are due to a surplus of grapes must and to the strength of the Australian dollar, Mr. Rathbone says. Besides the wineries, his insecticides company suffers from decreasing profits.

It is unclear of Darren, Mr. Rathbone’s sun, can remain the CEO of all four estates to be sold after they are sold. And it is unclear, too, of the UK importer Enotria will continue or will be allowed to continue the trade. A spokesman of Mr. Rathbone said: “For the moment, the business with Enotria will be continued as usual. Moreover, there is no reason to change that, not either with a new owner. We have successfully been working together with Enotria for 7 years and have enjoyed the continual growth of our portfolio. A reputation that we would not hesitate to recommend.” (red.yoopress)