Mike Kerrigan, until recently the winemaker for Howard Park, has taken an equity position in Hay Shed Hill, the Margaret River-based brand whose wines have been distributed by McWilliams. Kerrigan joins a team of investors headed by Ian Crockett, a Perth-based businessman with extensive interests in winemaking and viticulture in WA’s Great Southern region. Crockett’s major brand is West Cape Howe, which owns the 100 ha Lansdale Vineyard in Mount Barker and whose current annual sales are around 70,000 cases. Crockett will restore the Hayshed Hill facility as an operational winery with an anticipated production of around 500 tonnes. It will continue to produce the estate-grown Hayshed Hill brand from its current 17 ha of vineyards, plus the regional Pitchfork label. Working on a similar model to West Cape Howe, which still has two years to reach the same target, the five-year target for the business is to reach 100,000 cases between the two brands. Ian Crockett owns the Mount Trio brand, which he purchased from his partner in West Cape Howe, Gavin Berry. This label is shortly to be re-launched with a new look and pricing policy. Crockett’s viticultural activities are channeled through Quemby Viticultural Services, in which he is partnered by the experienced viticulturist Rob Quemby. This company today manages around 2500 acres of vineyards principally in the Great Southern for a group of clients, but no longer has any vineyard ownership. Ian Crockett’s steadily expanding sphere of infliuence in wine is no accident, since he brings a strong base of business nous to his wine-related activities. Not surprisingly, he has some interesting thoughts on the prerequisites for financial success in wine today. The maximum level of gearing a wine business should adopt is 25-30%, he says. Furthermore, a wine label has to over-deliver on quality, and crucially, maintain its margin. Every month his wine interests benchmark their costs and performance against a series of other selected wine businesses. Crockett’s wine businesses are involved in exports, but he is very careful to ensure he has the ability to service each market. He is looking at the UK with equal parts of confidence and nervousness for that reason. Finally, says Crockett, a wine should not be designed for too specific a market because of the risk of alienating potential customers.
