Top vegetable grower puts business on the market
A leading South Australian vegetable business, which includes a large-scale market garden at
Virginia, has listed its jewel in the crown.
Piscioneri Bros has been supplying year-round produce to major retailers for the past 30 years and is well-known for its bunch-line specialty crops, including spring onions, radish, parsley, silver beet, spinach, beetroot and kale.
A “partnership resolution’’ has now prompted the sale of its Virginia-based operation, said Adam Chilcott, Elders head of rural sales for SA, which is through an expressions of interest campaign closing on May 12.
No price guide has been released.
Mr Chilcott said the sale was not due to biosecurity concerns.
He said Piscioneri Bros did not provide prepacked products and was unaffected by last month’s bagged salad recall due to fears of E. coli contamination.
The farm also did not grow tomatoes and was free from tomato brown rugose fruit virus, which last year saw three Adelaide Plains properties forced to destroy millions of dollars of produce after being quarantined.
Adelaide Hills Berry Farm in Uraidla has also fallen victim to a recent fruit fly outbreak, which has prompted owners Dominic and Sam Vigara to sell the business and lay-off 17 staff.
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Piscioneri Bros are selling their Virginia-based business after more than 30 years in operation.
The business is a major supplier of vegetables across SA.
The sale includes about 35.5ha of arable market garden freehold land, across two titles, 50.45ha of leased land and a water entitlement of almost 110ML, with further access to 150ML.
Improvements to the property include an office, board room, packing shed, cool rooms, staff amenities, a pump shed and two implement sheds.
Plant and equipment is also available to ensure immediate continuity of operations.
The business, which employs up to 50 staff, mostly on a casual basis, holds a licence to use a section of the SA Produce Market and a lease at the Pooraka fruit and vegetable market.
Mr Chilcott said Piscioneri Bros had performed consistently well and “the business will have
wide appeal to investors (due to) its consistent profitability, current exposure to a niche
market segment and the significant land holding so close to Adelaide’’.
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The business currently employs around 50 staff, mostly on a casual basis.
The farm produces bunch-line specialty crops, including spring onions, radish, parsley, silver beet, spinach, beetroot and kale.
An information memorandum states the business has a five-year average gross trading profit
of $1.736m and a five-year average EBITDA (after normalisation) of $1.103m.
However, there is potential for greater sales revenue, with the leased land not farmed at its
full production capacity, according to the sales documentation.
It noted there was a “small area of land’’ with a “build-up of nematodes in the soil’’.
Nematodes are a common soil pest, with some varieties feeding on plant roots and slowing
plant growth.
