Wine millionaire delivers on investment pledge
Foley Wines says it is fulfilling promises it made to the Overseas Investment Office when seeking approval to buy Mt Difficulty Wines in Central Otago for $52 million.
It took nearly a year to obtain the approvals, partly because of a new ministerial directive under the Labourled coalition Government that came into effect in December 2017, raising the bar for the purchase of rural land by overseas investors.
Jobs would be created building and operating a new restaurant and cellar door at Mt Difficulty near Cromwell, a restaurant and a barrel facility at Te Kairanga Vineyard in Martinborough, and upgrading Grove Mill Winery in Marlborough to increase production.
Chief executive Mark Turnbull said the company had obtained resource consents from the Central Otago District Council for the Mt Difficulty development, and was planning the other expansions.
‘‘We’re doing what we said we would, and we’re also growing the company. Although Bill Foley owns a big share of Foley Wines, we like to think of ourselves as a Kiwi company because we have more than 900 local shareholders.’’
Turnbull said a recent decision to list on the main board of the New Zealand Stock Exchange meant more opportunities for new shareholders, and possibilities to raise further money for expansion.
Foley Wines is two-thirds owned by 74-year old Californian-based Bill Foley and his wife Carol – their wealth is estimated by Forbes magazine at more than US$600m (NZ$891m).
A top-ranked executive golfer, Foley is one of several wealthy Americans to invest in New Zealand wineries, taking advantage of a slump in vineyard values after the 2008 global financial crash.
He reportedly has an eye for sales of distressed properties. In 2011 he bought Wharekauhau Country Estate in Wairarapa for a price believed to be about $6m but never revealed by the Overseas Investment Office (OIO). Nightly visitor rates for the best rooms are more than $5000.
He began building Foley Wines in 2009 with the purchases of Vavasour and Goldwater wineries. Since then he has added Te Kairanga, Dashwood and Grove Mill, and most recently, Mt Difficulty. The company now has eight winery brands as well as a gin subsidiary.
Mt Difficulty is a medium-sized vineyard known for its Mt Difficulty and Roaring Meg labels, and particularly its pinot noir.
The names come from Otago’s gold rush days in the 1860s. Sheep drovers, employed by early settler and explorer William Rees to bring a flock of 3000 sheep from Oamaru to Otago, were stymied by the narrow Kawarau Gorge – they named the mountain above it Mt Difficulty.