Collapsed wine business put up for sale

A winery and restaurant in the Victorian regional centre of Geelong has been put up for sale by receivers, a month after collapsing with debts estimated at $16.5 million.

Pettavel, which has a vineyard, restaurant and cellar door in the town of Warun Ponds, was placed in administration in late April after directors Michael and Sandra Fitzpatrick had been tried unsuccessfully to sell the business for some months.

Secured creditor Rabobank, which is owed $11 million, subsequently put the business is the hands of receivers Kate Warwick and Ian England of accounting firm PwC.

Warwick told SmartCompany that she is hopeful that the sales campaign will unearth a buyer.

“We’ve been in there for a month and we have been approached by a number of parties who are interested.”

“It’s a beautiful venture so we are relatively confident that there will be some interest in the assets.”

The assets include the 45-hectare vineyard, winery and cellar door restaurant at Warun Ponds, another 128-hectare property in Geelong and two separate properties in the Murray Darling wine region.

Warwick would not comment on the specific issues that caused Pettavel’s collapse, but said the company had been buffeted by the headwinds hitting the wider industry.

“The wine sector has had issues for some time. There’s been a lot of commentary around oversupply of grapes and where the Australian dollar is at isn’t exactly helping.”

The winery arm of the business will continue to operate while the sale process continues. Harvest has just been completed, so Warwick says the main tasks at the moment involve “care and maintenance” of the vines.

However, the receivers have shut the cellar door restaurant, with 29 jobs lost.

“The restaurant was trading at a loss and in this current environment it just wasn’t viable to run the business.”

Unsecured creditors, who are owed about $5.5 million, include suppliers and the Australian Taxation Office, which is owed more than $500,000.

Expressions of interest in the business are due by June 3.