Treasury Wine Estates is planning to halt operations at its Ryecroft winery in the McLaren Vale wine region in South Australia.
The move is in line with the company's strategy to curb costs and to ramp up investment in other prominent wine brands in its portfolio.
The production operations at Ryecroft winery will be moved to other Treasury Wine Estates' wineries in the region, by slashing 33 jobs at the wine making facility.
The transfer of operations is consistent with the company's strategic roadmap, which includes stepping-up consumer marketing investment in its brands, driving a separate focus on the commercial portfolio, improving its cost base, light-weighting its capital structure and delivering supply chain efficiencies and improved profitability.
Treasury Wine Estates Wine Production ANZ director Peter Taylor said: "The decision to stop operating Ryecroft winery was an extremely difficult one and is certainly not a reflection on the experience or capability of the team working there.
"This is a tough but necessary action that TWE has to take. We have several wineries within our production footprint and need to ensure that they operate at the highest possible capacity to maximise the efficiencies of our network. Unfortunately Ryecroft has been operating at around half its capacity for several years now, and it is simply not sustainable for this to continue."
TWE will, however, continue to operate the Rosemount cellar door in McLaren Vale and approximately 900 hectares of vineyards throughout the Fleurieu Peninsula, with approximately 50 employees remaining in the region.
