Cassegrain Wines
Cassegrain Wines produces and distributes a large range of wine for various buyers across the world.
Need
The business received a large order from one if its longstanding Japanese buyer and needed finance to support the business. As Cassegrain Wines were unable to secure finance from their private market, they returned to us for support.
Solution
Our Export Contract Loan enabled Cassegrain Wines to meet their purchase order requirements for their customer in Japan and further support the growing export contracts of their business.
Cassegrain is a multi-award winning winemaking company based in Port Macquarie, NSW, which is growing its exports to Japan and China in response to high demand.
Cassegrain produces a large range of wines, doing everything from crushing the grapes through to bottling and distributing the wines.
Having established the business in 1984, Cassegrain started exporting in 1987 in response to specific demand from a Japanese buyer. Since then, the company has been successfully exporting its wines to Europe, UK, North America and Asia for a number of years. Japan remains its main export market, representing around three quarters of its export products.
Currently, exports represent 30 per cent of Cassegrain’s sales but the company is aiming to increase that to 70 per cent in five years’ time.
With the support of Export Finance Australia, and boosted by the free trade agreements recently signed with Japan and China, we’re anticipating that our exports will double over the next two years.
John Cassegrain
Sole Director, Cassegrain
Growing exports
Faced with growing demand from buyers in Japan and China, Cassegrain was worried about matching product supply to the purchase orders it was receiving.
The wine industry has a significant lag phase, as the harvest cycle doesn’t necessarily align with demand for product and the lead time from production to supply can vary significantly. For the higher quality wines, the grapes mature in barrels prior to bottling and distribution, meaning a longer lead time on the product supply. This means that Cassegrain has to invest in manufacturing its wines before receiving orders, to have sufficient product to fulfil a contract when it comes in.
In order to realise its potential growth in Japan and China, Cassegrain needed working capital to pay suppliers and keep production running smoothly.
Financial support
We provided Cassegrain with a A$500,000 Export Contract Loan to enable the company to deliver on its growing export contracts in Japan and China by investing in its manufacturing capacity.
An Export Contract Loan is a direct loan available to SME exporters to provide working capital finance for a specific export-related contract.
“Cassegrain is a great Australian success story receiving significant overseas interest and our support will ensure that they can deliver on a wide range of export contracts”, Export Finance Australia’s Colin George commented.