Mildura Operations and Assets

As a Mildura based business person and an investor in MRG, I have been following these posts for quite some time. I thought it would be worthwhile to do some sniffing around and talk to some contacts to find out some further information.

I have spoken with a few people that work in the factory in Mildura and its my understanding since the former head of the factory Andrew Nemtsas was let go from the company that the factory is in somewhat of a disarray. Apparently management of the Factory is now sourced from Melbourne, whether this has had an effect on the lack of fruit being processed at the factory or not is open to speculation. I also hear that processing is slow due to a large volume of fruit being too wet to process (up to 500 tonne) much of which may end up being thrown out. The comments from the factory also relate to the Cluster stock which is apparently in a shocking state and needs to be thrown out as well, somewhere around the 300 Tonne mark.

I also spoke to a farmer near the original Nemtsas farm, apparently there is some kind of argument in regards to water access, the Nemtsas family still own the pipeline. The vineyard has only just been watered, however, it does not appear to be in good condition. Another issue that was brought to my attention is that MRG have only just contacted growers in regards to management and operational changes, up to this point growers have been at a loss as to whom they should contact or talk to. Other talk around the town is the Australian Premium Fruit and Sunbeam are offering massive incentives to move from MRG to them.

I thought if would be worth having a look at some of the farms owned by MRO and contacted a friend that is a retired dried fruit expert (he is also good friends with Jamie Nemtsas, the founder and former COO of MRO that was either sacked/resigned or removed, not sure which) The Colignan, Nangiloc and Yatpool properties looked fine, good crops showing on the Sultana varieties etc. The only thing other than this worth mentioning on this forum is the massive expansion that appears to be happening at Colignan, there is a huge amount of work (at cost) occurring there. My friend has said from his experience the properties look in good condition and essentially the assets are very good

In conclusions, from my enquiries I would suggest that MRG needs to strengthen the management of Mildura ASAP, but seems to have some very good assets around the place. Lets hope management and communication changes happen ASAP !!!