It was a tough year for many with little relief from the pressures weighing on the sector since Covid. Editor Kim Berry provides this snapshot of the year that was.
The tailwinds/headwinds weather analogy had a good workout this year. While some parts of the industry or a business would be sailing ahead, the winds of logistics, energy prices, finding and retaining staff at their back, others would be beating against a bitter wind, almost sinking – and sometimes sunk – by the same forces.
As we go to press, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) has announced a non-cash impairment of its US-based assets. It anticipates it will see all goodwill – $687.4 million – carried in the Americas to be written off. Headwinds ahoy.
Where to start
The year started with a few companies changing hands, Coca-Cola acquired Billson’s Beverages out of voluntary administration, Pace Farm bought Kinross Farms, and the ACCC started investigating Woolworth’s planned acquisition of B&J City Kitchen.
After 23 years, the CEO of Australia’s largest independent family-owned brewery, Dr Tim Cooper, called last drinks as managing director. Cooper oversaw major upgrades, the relocation of the brewery to Regency Park, a hostile takeover bid in 2005, and the construction and opening of its $70 million visitor centre, microbrewery, and whisky distillery in 2024. The sixth generation of Coopers now work in the business.
Another special farewell was for Michael Simonetta, CEO of fresh produce company, Perfection Fresh. Simonetta had been with the business since 1984 and CEO since 1991. When he took the reins, there were 25 employees, which grew to 2000 employees and a turnover of more than $1 billion per annum. He introduced many new product lines, with the standout example, broccolini. More than 600 million bunches have been sold since it launched in 1999.
In a resignation that caught the industry by surprise, Australian Food & Grocery Council (AFGC) CEO, Tanya Barden, stepped down, with the council saying it was a mutually agreed separation. Barden had been at the AFGC for 12 years and CEO for the last seven. The council’s chief commercial officer, Colm Maguire, was ultimately Barden’s replacement, after acting in the role during the recruitment process.
In February, news broke over at Asahi Beverages – Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) CEO Danny Celoni had resigned. Asahi had undergone a company restructure, consolidating the three business units – Australian Lifestyle Beverages (ALB), CUB, and Asahi Beverages NZ. ALB CEO Nigel Parsons became chief commercial officer, Brian Phan chief growth officer, and former CEO of Asahi Beverages NZ, Andrew Campbell, NZ Country Manager.
Also doing some rearranging was Maggie Beer Holdings (MBH), its first market update for the year reporting a $4 million loss for the quarter. It was a glimpse of what was going to be a particularly tough year, a continuation of the year before when it lost its CEO, CFO, and had a $28.2 million loss. There were bright spots for the company – it finally sold Paris Creek Farms to Victorian food manufacturer and distributor, Katoomba Global Foods, three years after first flagging it would offload its dairy assets.
And then, Bickford’s Group owner Angelo Kotses and San Remo CEO Maurice Crotti took substantial stakes in the business – 19.99 per cent and 13 per cent respectively – which bolstered shareholder confidence so much the share price was 84 per cent up on the beginning of the year. They control one-third of the company now. National treasure and namesake of the company, Maggie Beer, said it was “a lovely turning point”.
Dairy moments
From one hopeful revival to another, after more than a year of uncertainty around its future, a buyer for King Island Dairy stepped forward, freeing Saputo of its problematic grandparent. Nick Dobromilsky and Graeme Wilson formed King Island Dairy 2 and with their supply chain and manufacturing experience, hope to see the 120-year-old business continue for many more.
No such luck for Bega’s Strathmerton cheese processing and packaging plant in Victoria, which was earmarked for closure as the company looked to consolidate operations at its Ridge Street factory in Bega. The decision impacted around 300 employees while creating 100 jobs in Bega.
Bega also announced that after a 12-month review, the lack of a buyer, and ongoing annual operating losses of $5-10 million, it would wind down and close its peanut processing business, Peanut Company of Australia, which it acquired in 2017. Again, a local company – Crumpton Group – came in and bought the land, buildings, and equipment.
You can always be sure the dairy sector will deliver a rollercoaster of emotions. Of course, the highpoint this year was Fonterra’s sale of its global Consumer and associated businesses to French dairy giant, Lactalis, for AU$3.479 billion (NZ$3.845B).
It seems offloading business units can be a fraught exercise. Early in the year TWE announced it was abandoning its plan to sell its Commercial brands business because the offers it had received were too low. It had announced in August 2024, plans to divest the Commercial brands portfolio and register a $290 million non-cash impairment after tax against its Treasury Premium Brands division, including Wolf Blass, Yellowglen, and Lindeman’s.
While Penfolds continued to perform, it was not to the bolstering heights expected, as its China target market banqueted less than they have in the past on the instruction of its government. Also, more broadly, consumers are not drinking as much as they used to, and when they do, it’s not only not as much but not necessarily what they were drinking before. In the US, TWE also had a less than smooth transition between distributors which provided headaches all round.
To the future
But it wasn’t all bad news, after more than two years in the making, TWE unveiled its $15 million LoNo wine production facility in the Barossa Valley. The build features state-of-the-art dealcoholisation technology, with world-first patent pending processes for treating the aromatic component of wine that locks in flavour. The tech is an exciting development, and the early results are promising. It turns out making wine from wine is ambitious and quite challenging but having seen the facility and met with the team, it opens a whole new realm of possibilities for a product we have made for millennia.
Staying in the realm of the possibilities of future foods and beverages, Nourish Ingredients and its partner, Chinese company Cabio Biotech, successfully completed a commercial production run of the plant-based fat, Tastilux, saying they were the first fat company to achieve commercial-scale validation with a low cost of production. That is a very big deal in the FoodTec world. The company also moves quickly – soon after, it received US commercial clearance for commercial sales to US food manufacturers and brands, once the primary ingredient was cleared by the FEMA Expert Panel and received GRAS status.
It appears food regulators were looking to the future all around the world this year. In a landmark decision, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) gave the green light to biotech company, Vow, for its cell-cultured quail to be sold in Australia and New Zealand. It makes ANZ the fourth country in the world to approve cell-cultured meat for human consumption. Vow’s retail brand, Forged, is already selling its Japanese Quail Smoked Spread to consumers.
And while Vow forges on, so too does Magic Valley, another cultured meat outfit, which took its cultivated lamb meatballs and port dumplings to the New South Wales parliament.
The pace of these developments is simultaneously slow (think scalability and price) and fast (cultivated meat, that you can buy, already).
But while the world of FoodTec is dragging us forward regardless, our current food system is still not ideal.
We need a plan
The government held another federal inquiry into Australia’s food and beverage sector and after 10 public hearings, 125 submissions, and 16 site visits around the country, the House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources came to the same key recommendation as the prior Standing Committee on Agriculture’s report – the need for a national food plan.
“A national food plan will provide cohesion for food policies and plans across federal, state and local governments. Increased connections across the Australian food system will strengthen our ability to make progress together on food-related issues,” it said, a statement as blindingly obvious to anyone involved in the sector as saying the sky is blue.
And while this got hopes up for more action and less talking, the $3 million allocated to investigating a food plan in the federal budget did little to fan those flames of hope.
That said, the government has appointed the inaugural food council, which will have an advisory role to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry minister in the development of the government’s national food security strategy.
Rumblings have already started that the council doesn’t reflect the industry well enough, that it is stacked with big business interests. Of much greater concern is a minister, already with three portfolios, is now meant to take on an entire rethink and remodelling of Australia’s food system. With $3 million and a pro bono council.
Source: Vinarchy
Consolidate, restructure, rebuild
Australian Wine Holdco (AWL), the Bain Capital-led consortium that bought Accolade Wines and Pernod Ricard’s ANZ and Spanish wine businesses last year, merged them into one company – Vinarchy – this year, and appointed former Carlton & United Breweries CEO, Danny Celoni, to lead the business.
The alcohol sector across the board was unsettled. Diageo’s CEO Debra Crew outlined a cost-cutting plan to save $777 million but left “by mutual agreement” barely two months later. Her replacement is Dave Lewis, who begins on 1 January.
In its Australian operations, Diageo sold its UDL and Ruski labels to Vok Beverages, part of Bickford’s Group.
Campari offloaded its only Australian manufacturing plant to Garage Beverages, which will produce its ready-to-drink ranges instead.
And Top Shelf International – the company behind Ned whisky, Grainshaker vodka, and Act of Treason agave spirit – after trying to reduce debts and claw back some form of working capital for the better part of a year, appointed McGrathNicol as its voluntary administrators.
Nestlé also announced grim cost-cutting in the form of 16,000 jobs across the company around the world. After scandal in its highest ranks and with barely a month in the role, CEO Philipp Navratil, announced 5.8 per cent of the company’s employees would lose their job in the next two years, as the global food business looks to save $5.8 billion by the end of 2027.
Time to invest
There were some pleasing investments in the sector, not least Suntory Oceania opening its $400 million multi-beverage facility in Ipswich, Queensland, and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners unveiling its new $75 million line at its Richlands plant to meet the growing demand for Monster energy drinks. It’s the largest line for CCEP globally, with the capability to process up to 120,000 cans per hour.
Still in Queensland, Asahi launched its new $60 million canning line at its Yatala brewery to meet the growing demand for cans over stubbies.
Arnott’s unveiled its latest multi-million-dollar, 45,000 square metre facility in Rowville, Victoria, for its Good Food Partners business. The site will produce 180 million muesli and protein bars, 40 million oat sachets, and 300 million bowls of muesli. Arnott’s also celebrated its 160th birthday this year, so that was a pretty solid present.
Nestlé announced a $30 million upgrade of the Campbellfield factory in Victoria that included a new wafer oven to deliver a crispier more consistent snap for KitKats.
Mondelez is spending $130 million on upgrades to handle multiple ranges of chocolate and confectionery products including a new, award-winning automated warehouse installed by Swisslog.
And staying with confectionery, family-owned chocolate maker, Haigh’s Chocolates, opened its new $120 million factory in South Australia, which almost doubles its chocolate production.
Pure Dairy launched its new 13,000 square metre, $100 million dairy manufacturing and processing plant in Dandenong, Victoria.
And in exciting news for spud growers and lovers, the Victorian government gave the go-ahead for potato product manufacturer, Farm Frites, to build its proposed $300 million – and first – Australian production facility in Victoria’s Wimmera district. Farm Frites produces potato products for the food service industry and quick service restaurants. Not only will it be bringing production onshore, but it will create 250 local jobs. Once operational in 2027 it will be able to process up to 250,000t of Australian-grown potatoes every year.
So there you have it, a mixed bag in the food and beverage manufacturing sector once more. It has been a tough year for many, here’s to smoother waters in 2026.
This article first appeared in the December 2025/January 2026 edition of Food & Drink Business magazine.
