Running a construction business alongside an organic compost venture and an emerging wine label may not sound like a perfect fit, but the results have proved otherwise for Daniel and Benjamin Avila, who released their first wine label, Castle Lion, this m
Running a construction business alongside an organic compost venture and an emerging wine label may not sound like a perfect fit, but the results have proved otherwise for Daniel and Benjamin Avila, who released their first wine label, Castle Lion, this month.
The compost business, Bio Organics Pty Ltd, which started seven years ago, was made possible by the infrastructure the brothers already owned through the construction business they took over from their parents in 1995, ATA Construction.
The production of organic compost was initially aimed at changing the soil structure on a 60-hectare parcel of sandy land in Oakford so a vineyard could be established; however, it also became a business of its own.
Daniel Avila, who was a WA Business News 40under40 winner this year, said that, while building up the vineyard, they kept growing the construction business’s property portfolio as well as developing and commercialising Bio Organics, which produces more than 50,000 tonnes of compost annually.
He said the compost business was started with a competitive advantage because of the construction business’s existing infrastructure, as they already owned all the equipment required to move soil and collect waste from various locations.
The brothers’ newest enterprise took an innovative step back to the past by using a traditional method of organic waste recycling and fertilisation.
“This is not a new way to make wine; we are actually going back to old ways when people used biological growing, and it goes back to when there wasn’t any other way.
What is new about it is that we are able to do it with the best technologies,” Daniel Avila told WA Business News.
“We are using what used to be burnt, buried or tipped in the water to do our compost.
It’s a new way of recycling what used to be a hazard,” Ben Avila said.
Another original aspect to the Avilas’ wine label is that the marketing of their product won’t push the regional characteristics of the grapes, but rather the chemicalfree and organic composting process used in the wine’s production.
The Avilas intend to distribute their wine through export, bottle shops, restaurants and “virtual cellar doors”.
They also plan to take advantage of ATA Construction’s future tourismfocused developments in Albany and Augusta.
“We have an opportunity that others don’t, as we own a lot of wine region property resources that are yet to be developed,” Daniel Avila said.
The brothers, who are second generation Spanish immigrants, said they wanted to reflect their heritage in the wine they produced.
After initially selling their grape production to other wineries, they decided to look after the whole product and release their own label, named after the region that their parents fled during the Spanish Civil War, Castilla y Leon.