Wangapeka cheese firm for sale
A Wakefield dairy farm and award-winning artisan cheesemaking business is for sale.
The 187-hectare Wangapeka Family Farm farm was listed with Bayleys Motueka in early December with the offers closing in a deadline process on February 28.
The popular brand has been built up over the last seven years by owners Karen and Daryl Trafford, churning out award winning organic cheeses and dairy products stocked all over the country.
Karen Trafford said the family was leaving the business so they could move closer to town, spend more time with their children and grandchildren and have more quality time to themselves which farm life didn’t allow.
The decision was made with a heavy heart, she said.
‘‘I will miss walking outside to my cows each morning.’’
She said recent opportunities offered around exporting outside of New Zealand made her think ‘‘this was the right time to sell’’, with the business ‘‘offering so many further opportunities to someone prepared to take it by the horns and run’’.
Opportunities included exporting, increasing production, expanding the existing range or becoming a butter factory.
Wangapeka Family Dairy general manager Rhi Cairns said there had been ‘‘a couple of viewings’’ but they had not yet resulted in anything.
There had also been a lot of interest in the factory, ‘‘especially from overseas investors looking to export’’.
She said it was hard to say what the outcome would be this far out from the closing sale date.
The ‘‘ultimate goal’’ would be for someone ‘‘just as passionate to take over the business and take it to that next step’’.
The property has a 165-squaremetre cheese factory with chillers, a processing room, an office and staff room. It also includes a refurbished milking shed, threebedroom homestead and fourbedroom manager’s residence.