Retail News CRM

Tag: Cobram Estate

  • Cobram Estate’s sales surge after bumper olive crop

    Cobram Estate’s sales surge after bumper olive crop

    Listed Australian olive oil grower and processor Cobram Estate Olives, has recorded a 21 percent year-on-year boost in sales, to $169 million for the last financial year as its foray into the US pays off.

    The majority of the sales – $117 million – were from its Cobram Estate brand – the top-selling olive oil in Australian supermarkets – and its newer Red Island brand, which collectively rose by 17 percent.

    Sales of Cobram Estate in the US surged 69 percent and turnover in the market reached $43 million, up by 46 percent.

    In a results presentation, the company reported a higher-yielding crop last year to 12.5 million litres, offset by a lower margin as the price of producing packaged goods rose.

    However, looking forward, the company says the Australian olive oil crop is down this year, however, it still expects to have sufficient oil for its packaged goods targets.

    “The sales outlook remains positive, benefiting from a global shortage of olive oil and record high global prices of European olive oil flowing through to both Australia and the US,” the company said.

    Established in 1988, Cobram Estate Olives is Australia’s largest producer and marketer of premium quality extra virgin olive oil and owns more than 2.6 million olive trees across 7000ha of farmland in Victoria, and a further 334,000 trees on 558ha in California.

    Lees ook:

  • Olive oil maker Cobram Estate introduces subscription model

    Olive oil maker Cobram Estate introduces subscription model

    The olive harvesters at Cobram Estate are working around the clock at Boort and Boundary Bend to bring in this year’s crop. Each day half a billion olives are picked.

    For the past 15 years a machine called Colossus has been getting the job done, but a new harvester called Optimus has joined the team, and it is tipped to be faster and more efficient.

    Both machines operate in a similar way, straddling the olive tree, before the fingers on their rotating picking heads comb the olives off the branches.

    Cobram Estate’s joint chief executive Leandro Ravetti says Optimus has six picking heads compared to Colossus’s two.

    “That gives you more flexibility but at the same time, more intensity in the action, allowing you to go faster,” he said.

    There are two Optimus harvesters at Boort this season, but Mr Ravetti thinks that number will increase in the coming years, as 40 percent of the company’s trees is still to reach maturity.

    “We need new harvesters to cope with them, but also our Colossus is an ageing group of machines and we’re looking at phasing them out and as they need replacement,” Mr Ravetti said.

    “Rather than buying a new Colossus, we’ll probably be looking at buying more new Optimus and gradually making the overall process a lot more efficient.”

    Mr Ravetti says introducing the Optimus harvester, designed in Argentina, should mean that the company’s need for seasonal workers will remain stable, even as more trees reach maturity.

    Roughly half of Cobram Estate’s olives are grown at Boundary Bend and Mr Ravetti says the new machines will eventually make their way to the groves further north.

    “Boort has the largest amount of younger trees, so naturally, the growth of harvest was going to happen here,” he said.

    “So hopefully by the time that all the machines at Boort are Optimus, the machine is going to be really well designed and very reliable.

    “That will be the time to start replacing the machines at Boundary Bend.”

    Lees ook: