These days McGuigan Simeon Wines Ltd is responsible for an ever-increasing proportion of wine business news. It has been typically active over the last month. Not only has it announced its pending acquisition of troubled Griffith-based maker Miranda Wines for A$22.5 million in cash and stock, but it has sold on a lease-back basis A$77 million of vineyards to the Beston Wine Industry Trust. McGuigan expects the Miranda purchase, which includes brands such as Miranda High Country, Mirrool Creek and Somerton, to be at least earnings neutral this year. I would expect much of additional fruit to go straight into McGuigan’s steadily expanding export program. It views the purchase as a means to broaden its domestic and export product range, to establish a significant beachhead in the Riverina region and as a source of packaging and distribution benefits. Miranda also owns plantings in the Barossa Valley (where it bought Rovalley) and in Victoria’s King Valley, the base for its ‘High Country’ label. Miranda, whose annual turnover is around A$60 million (of which around 20% is export sales), also gives McGuigan Simeon a presence in the cask wine sector, which presently accounts for more than 50% of domestic wines sales by volume. With a 25% increase in sales revenue to A$293.1 million, McGuigan Simeon’s net profit rose by 27% to A$32.2 million. This company is certainly backing itself to continue its export growth in a way that might encourage others to follow.
