The impacts of Covid-19 continue to be felt around the world and within the Marlborough region. Labour and inflation issues continue to felt across all facets of the economy and managing the impacts of these factors on Rangitāne commercial assets is a key focus to ensure that the commercial entity continues to perform well.
The continued diversification and divestment of more ‘risky’ investments has put Rangitāne in a strong position to continue to weather the storm and put us in a good position to take advantage of opportunities that may arise.
It is expected that a number of the opportunities that the team have been working on over the past 12 months, will come to fruition in the next financial year.
We recently completed the rent review negotiations with the Ministry of Education for the various schools that are leased to the Crown. The negotiations saw a positive uplift in rents. Pleasingly, Rangitāne House continues to perform with resilience in the face of challenging commercial conditions. Rangitāne House remains 100% occupied.
After a challenging harvest in 2021, 2022 is looking like a bumper crop for both Flaxmill vineyard and across the Marlborough region. Estimates are coming in a roughly over 135 tonne and the average grape price is once again up on previous years. This is great news as costs to operate the vineyard have also increased over the past year.
We have continued to generate returns from our ACE and fisheries assets. Fisheries income to date for the April-21 and October-21 fishing years were down on the 5-year average but in-line with previous year income. Its is hoped that as the world settles back to ‘normal’ we will see a return to better pricing.
