Darwin AFL star-turned entrepreneur Daniel Motlop toasts new deal for his Green Ant Gin label

DARWIN AFL star-turned-entrepreneur Daniel Motlop has sold a majority stake in his Green Ant Gin label for a tidy sum

Daniel Motlop with his Australian green ant gin at Parap Fine Foods which has become a top selling gin around the world

DARWIN’S former AFL star-turned-entrepreneur Daniel Motlop has sold a majority stake in his Green Ant Gin label to Founders First.

Sharemarket-listed Founders First was already a shareholder in the Motlop family’s company Something Wild Beverages, which has a stall in the Adelaide Central Market.

Founders First now owns 65 per cent of a new company – Australian Native Spirits, which it paid $400,000 for – with the Motlop family and others holding the rest of the stock.

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Founders First managing director Mark Haysman said in a statement to the ASX the gin had achieved accolades at international spirits shows and had great potential.

“The current volume of Green Ant Gin is greater than 10,000 bottles per annum and the directors believe there is significant potential to accelerate the growth of Green Ant utilising Founders First’s commercial expertise and export access,” the company said.

“Australian Native Spirits aims to positively contribute to indigenous communities and economies in Australia by maintaining enduring relationships with the Larrakia people in the Northern Territory to source and harvest botanicals for use in the distillation process.’’

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Motlop said it was great to be able to provide jobs in Aboriginal communities where there sometimes weren’t a lot of opportunities.

“I believe personally that to give an Aboriginal person a job, it helps a lot of things in terms of health, in terms of kids going to school, to set it up for the future is what we are trying to do,’’ he said.

Haysman is a former chief executive of Port Adelaide Football Club, and has a long history in the brewing industry, at one time heading up the West End brewery in Adelaide, and spending more than seven years at Carlton and United Breweries.

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Founders First is backed by investors such as wine industry heavyweight and Seppeltsfield owner Warren Randall.

Motlop played for North Melbourne and Port Adelaide during his AFL career