Company behind Harbour Bottling has a $30 million war chest for winery purchases

THE company behind new wine export business Harbour Bottling has secured a $30 million investment and is on the look out for wineries to buy.

02/02/16 - Jonathon Jianing Li, Wayne Chao and Jason Shuang Zhao are amongst a group of investors has spent $5 million setting up Harbour Bottling in Osborne, which will aim to help people export wine to China. Photo Tom Huntley

THE company behind new wine export business Harbour Bottling has secured a $30 million investment and is on the look out for wineries to buy.

AWTE Enterprise director Wayne Chao said an investor had approached the group, looking to work together on exporting wine to China.

Harbour Bottling has a newly-launched bottling and export facility at Osborne, where it is currently shipping about two containers of wine per day.

Mr Chao said the new investment would allow the company to further vertically integrate, and it was keen to talk to winery owners about possible purchases or joint venture opportunities.

“Within the $30 million we will probably be able to allocate resources into a couple of regions,’’ Mr Chao said.

“First we will be looking at the Barossa Valley, but we are also looking at McLaren Vale and the Limestone Coast.

“It could be very exciting for a winery if they are looking at co-operation or selling their business.’’

Mr Chao said the Barossa’s brand awareness was growing in China, but it still had a lot of growth potential.

Mr Chao said the company would most likely be looking at deals in the $2 million to $10 million range.

Harbour Bottling launched its $5 million Osborne bottling plant last month.

The company is a vertically integrated wine producer, growing its own grapes, contract-crushing them and then selling them through a distribution network of 40 cellar doors in China.

It also bottles, exports and distributes wine for other customers.

Australia’s wine exports to China increased 32.1 per cent to $280 million in 2014-15.