By Ian Neubauer
The Hunter Valley’s Yarraman Winery has announced a proposed merger with US beverage giant Drinks Americas Holdings (DAH) will not go forward, citing a breakdown in negotiations.
“The decision was taken at a Yarraman board meeting last week,” said Yarraman Estate managing director, Ian Long. “Talks did not progress and we didn’t see any value in moving forward.”
Yarraman and DAH first started talking at an international investor road show in the US the Australian winemaker funded to seek ways to increase its presence in the North American marketplace.
“The initial attraction of the Drinks America transaction was they had a pretty wide ranging distribution in America and from their side they were looking to get into China, where we have strong distribution,” Long said.
“So there was potential for synergies there,” Long said, adding that securing access to an established distribution network was essential for success in the US given the challenging market conditions prevailing there.
Long said it was a one-off deal and Yaraman is not currently pursuing merger or acquisition talks with other parties.
“The Americas Drink Holdings [negotiation] was just two companies looking at each other and seeing ways to make it work. We obviously didn’t find that so we walked away,” he said.