Two Austrian winemakers pay €2.4 million for Agroind

In the wake of its third bankruptcy, the Vipava-based winery is sold at auction to the sole bidder

Agroind had been declared bankrupt on three occasions. Photo: Mojca Dumančič

The Vipava-based Agroind has a new owner in the form of Agromib. The company was established a month ago by winemakers from the Austrian province of Styria to take over Agroind. In the town of Gamlitz and the surrounding area, the Austrians manage 2400 hectares of vineyards spread over several family farms.

As the sole bidders at today’s auction, they purchased Agroind for 2.4 million euros. They intend to keep all 20 employees, while planning to create new jobs, restore Vipava-area vineyards, and purchase this year’s grapes.

After the auction, the new owners, Hannes Sabathi and Michael Blaschitz, stated that they will pay the purchase price in the next few days. Recently, they conducted a due diligence process of Agroind and its business connections. The head of the Agroind Workers’ Council Andrej Furlan said: "It’s obvious that the two Austrians are in the wine business and know the industry. Their questions were specific – as one would expect from people with a winegrowing and winemaking background. All 20 employees now hope that this is the beginning of a new chapter in the century-old history of the Vipava winery. After an extremely poor – even catastrophic – experience with the previous Ukrainian owners, we now hope that Agroind and our brand will once again both attain their rightful places. Our employees, our co-op partners, and farmers, who kept supplying us grapes despite the uncertainty, have all made an effort to keep our brand on the market. We worked well with the bankruptcy manager and we’ve managed to at least maintain market continuity. We have sufficient backlog to make it to St. Martin’s Day, so we’ll remain on the market, but we can’t wait until the next vintage." Workers are owed more than 800,000 euros by Agroind.
The Austrian owners will keep the existing brand
The Austrian owners will keep the Agroind brand. Michael Blaschitz emphasizes: "The Vipava winery has an established brand both in Slovenia and abroad. We will absolutely retain all Agroind brands. And soon this winery – which was first yours, a co-op, then Ukrainian, and now finally ours – will be known mostly for its good wines, not the business problems it has had over the past few years." Hannes Sabathi also announced new investments: "We will invest mostly in your valley’s vineyards and will create new jobs. For now, the upcoming harvest is our priority. In the Gamlitz area, we maintain 2400 hectares of vineyards. We are also working with several family farms and we are aware what a responsibility that the harvest represents – both in terms of logistics and finances. We are prepared and have the money."

Al. Ma., MMC, Mojca Dumančič, TV Slovenija; translated by J. B.