Accolade Wines will cut 175 jobs by January 2013 when it closes its Australian bottling operations.
The major wine company, which produces brands including Banrock Station and Berri Estates, has entered into a deal with Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) to bottle its wines in Australia, and in turn, Accolade will bottle TWE wines in the United Kingdom.
TWE owns several popular Australian wine brands including Yellowglen, Wolf Blass, Penfolds, and Wynns Coonawarra Estate.
Accolades Wines chief executive Troy Christensen pointed to changes in market conditions and the need to ensure optimum efficiency as the reasons behind the decision.
He said there is a surplus of bottling capacity in Australia currently, and that while the decision will solve that problem, he understand the workers who will lose their jobs will not take it lightly.
At the Reynella facility in south Adelaide, 175 workers will be made redundant, all of whom will receive their full redundancy payments.
The company also said in a statement that it will offer further support to workers by assisting them in finding new jobs.
“For a number of years we have researched alternatives to avoid outsourcing our Reynella bottling and distribution facility, including relocating assets within the business,” the statement said.
“No other option delivered such long term benefits.
“We were faced with the difficult realisation that the best option for our business and for the Australian industry was to ensure that the most efficient facilities were fully utilised even if they were not our own.”
Transitioning to the new bottling and packing arrangements would begin in the coming weeks and will be completed by January next year, according to TWE chief executive David Dearie.
In May last year, Accolade Wines, formally known as Constellation Wines, announced plans to tap into the eastern European market through its operations in Moscow, Russia.