Montague Fresh sell major ownership to Canada’s Ontario Teachers’

A Victorian family fruit business has sold major control of their 75-year-old company to a mammoth Canadian pension fund.

A Victorian fruit farming family has sold the majority ownership of its 75-year-old enterprise to a mammoth Canadian pension fund, which is accumulating a significant Australian horticultural portfolio.

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (Ontario Teachers’) and its Australian agriculture subsidiary AustOn Corporation (AustOn) have announced they have purchased a majority equity interest in Montague.

Under the partnership Pomona Valley, a subsidiary of Ontario Teachers’, will merge with Montague to form one business, while Montague managing director Scott Montague - who will retain an ownership stake in the business - will become general manager of the merged entity.

Mr Montague said the merger would create a “preferred supplier to domestic and international customers”.

“The partnership with AustOn and the merger with Pomona Valley signals the next exciting stage in the growth of Montague,” he said in a statement.

“The financial backing of a global investor in agriculture opens a range of possibilities that both businesses have been keen to explore.”

Scott Montague in his apple packing shed in Narre Warren, Victoria.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of next year, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

The value of the transaction remains undisclosed.

The Montague family’s fruit farming was established in 1948 when Bill Montague planted an apple orchard at Narre Warren, southeast of Melbourne.

Since then the business has become one of the leading entities in Australian horticulture, handling 18 per cent of the nation’s apple production and 15 per cent of stonefruit produce across orchards in Victoria, Tasmania and NSW.

Montague Fresh also has distribution centres in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Last year, Montague Fresh entered into a 20-year lease partnership with Warakirri Asset Management’s Warakirri Farmland Fund, where they would grow plum, nectarine and apricot varieties at two properties across 250ha; one in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley and the other near Swan Hill, across the river in NSW.

Ontario Teachers’, which owned $249.8 billion in assets as at June 30 this year, is fast becoming a major owner of Australian horticultural assets after purchasing major ownership of South Australia’s Mitolo Family Farms.

Mitolo Family Farms is one of Australia’s largest horticultural producers with 51,000ha of land and 700 staff growing mostly potatoes and onions.

Mitolo Family Farms also purchased the 3932ha Kynoch farming portfolio near Bordertown, ending the tenure of the Rowett family earlier this year.

Ontario Teachers’ AustOn venture, which began in 2018, also owns other horticultural assets including 2878ha at Robinvale and the 500ha Pomona Valley property at Ardmona in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley.