Australian cash boost for juice company

Simply Squeezed has a 63 per cent share of the chilled juice market and uses 80 per cent of all New Zealand-produced juicing oranges.

Napier juice company Simply Squeezed is eyeing a potential sharemarket listing after a major capital injection from an Australian private equity firm.

Sydney-based Crescent Capital Partners is paying millions of dollars for a 60 per cent stake in a new holding company.

It also plans to put millions more into developing the business and modernising its plant, Simply Squeezed founder and chief executive Steve Brownlie said yesterday.

Brownlie, who retains a 40 per stake, said he would retain control of Simply Squeezed.

The company had annual turnover of more than $20 million and the deal gave him a significant cash payment, which he would use to develop orchards owned by one of his companies.

The business started as a hand-squeezing operation in 1991 and it now has a Napier plant, employs 84 people and has 45 distributors nationally.

Simply Squeezed has a 63 per cent share of the chilled juice market and uses 80 per cent of all New Zealand-produced juicing oranges.

The orchards Brownlie is developing are in Gisborne and Wairoa and are expected to triple local production so the business can cut costs involved in importing juice from Australia.

Brownlie said he had been put in touch with Crescent after looking for an equity injection to help his expansion plans. He said he and Crescent might consider a float in four or five years.

Crescent's executive director Andrew McGill dismissed speculation that the firm may have paid too much for its stake.

"Our due diligence for any investment is pretty intense and thorough."

He said Crescent would consider other opportunities in the food and beverage sector, and in New Zealand business in general.

"I wouldn't limit it to food and beverage, although we have seen a couple of opportunities."

McGill said Crescent was not alone in viewing the New Zealand market as offering attractive investment opportunities in a marginally less competitive capital environment than Australia.