Wild Nectar is the latest new honey brand to hit the shelves of Australian supermarkets. this month. It features professionally designed packaging and is available in both organic and normal varieties.
Moreover the company behind it has big plans.
In fact, the company - Australian Rainforest Honey Pty Ltd (ARH) is already well-known in the Australian honey industry as a major producer and owner/operator of some six thousand bee hives, mainly on the south coast of NSW.
ARH was founded in the 1930’s, and since then has always been based in the small NSW country town of Temora. Three generations of the Roberts family built the business up into one of the country’s largest independently owned and operated honey producers.
But in 2017 the family sold-out for a reputed $8.1million. The buyer was a publicly listed company - Webster Limited, an agricultural conglomerate best known at that time as Australia’s largest walnut grower.
Webster had plans to expand into almonds, and buying a honey producer gave Websters a ready supply of bees to pollinate its new almond plantations.
But then Webster itself, was taken over, by the Canadian public service pension fund.
And here is where our story gets interesting. Because ARH now appears to be owned and operated by the son of notorious former waterfront tycoon – Chris Corrigan.
Corrigan and his associates had been significant shareholders in Webster and devised a typically complex scheme of arrangement for the Canadian takeover.
The scheme saw most of Websters assets transferred to the Canadian super fund. But Corrigan got to keep some of the best assets, including ARH.
These days Corrigan reportedly spends most of his time in Switzerland.
Corrigans son Joe, however, appears to be still based in Australia. And has developed an enthusiasm for bees and the honey industry.
According to local media reports, he plans to shift Australian Rainforest Honey Ltd’s honey-packing operations and headquarters to a new plant in Nowra and increase production to a million tonnes of honey per annum.
For more information go to www.wildnectarhoney.com.au
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