MARGARET River winery Chateau Xanadu’s export sales are set to quadruple with the recent announcement of an agreement between the company and a UK-based distribution business.
Private Liquor Brands will market Xanadu wines into the growing UK market.
PLB supply premium wines from Europe and the US to customers in UK and Ireland.
PLB manging director David McCord said he was delighted with the exclusive agency agreement.
“Wines from the Margaret River region in WA are internationally acclaimed and the Chateau Xanadu label certainly enhances our reputation for managing premium award-winning Australian wines,” he said.
Chateau Xanadu general manager Andrew Moore said PLB’s market knowledge would make Xanadu a significant brand in the UK premium wine market.
The deal follows a recapitalisation and expansion of the long-established vineyard and winery.
Last year the company raised in excess of $10 million through Norgard Clohessy Equity for the purpose of upgrading the winery and planting sixty-eight more hectares of vines on the property.
“This gives us a large shareholder base of 375 and we are well on the way to achieving a total base of 500 shareholders by the time the prospectus closes,” Chateau Xanadu chairman Ross Norgard said.
The company is also finalising negotiations on the purchase of a property in the Margaret River region and is preparing to plant another fifty hectares of vines.
This, together with the eighty-eight hectares of vines at Chateau Xanadu’s Terry Road property, will make Chateau Xanadu one of the region’s five largest vineyards.
Work has also commenced on a $1.4 million expansion and upgrading of the Terry Road winery to cater for the planned increase in wine production.
Mr Moore said fears of an oversupply of wine would not hurt the Australian and, in particular, the Margaret River industry.
“If there is any wine glut, it will be in the lower end – not in the premium wines,” Mr Moore said.
He said to be part of the future it was important to be involved in the whole spectrum of wine producing.
“We are not wine growers as such, but wineries,” Mr Moore said.
He said this was important to ensure standards and quality were maintained.
