By Ian Neubauer
West Australian winemaker Palandri has been given a green light to go ahead with the production of its 2008 vintage following an injection of capital into its financial arm.
Palandri Finance appointed professional services firm Deloitte as voluntary administrators of the Palandri group of companies on February 27 in the face of a looming cash flow shortage.
Deloitte’s first move was to isolate Palandri Finance from the rest of the group to ensure the business could continue to produce and market wine in the lead up to this year’s vintage.
“This is great news for all the stakeholders because the recent hot weather in Western Australia has brought forward the harvest of 2008 vintage and the working capital loan enables administrators to commence harvesting and processing the fruit,” said Deloitte partner, Gary Doran.
“This has been a complex task and has involved not only raising the funds but obtaining the approval of the Supreme Court to proceed despite extremely tight deadlines,” he said.
Deloitte issued purchase orders to various Palandri contractors on Thursday afternoon. Harvesting of first grapes was scheduled to commence on Thursday evening.