August/September cover story:

Dexion and Wineworks keep the wine industry flowing

It was a nice problem for a company to have – business was too good. Wineworks, New Zealand's largest contract wine-bottler, was experiencing huge growth. In late 2007, global and domestic demand for New Zealand wines was booming, and exports were growing at a compound rate of 25 percent each year.

In the valleys of Marlborough, famous for its sauvignon blanc, the amount of land under grape had tripled in size over five years to nearly 16,000 hectares. Wineworks' plant in Blenheim, the hub of the Marlborough wine-growing district, had for many years been bottling, storing and distributing wine for an eclectic range of local winemakers, from single vineyards to multinationals. Then suddenly it found itself filled to the brim.
"For years we had been stacking the pallets in the aisles, piling it high, and then having to spend hours digging out that elusive last pallet," says Wineworks managing director, Tim Nowell-Usticke.

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