Gusbourne makes three senior appointments

English wine producer Gusbourne has promoted its chief winemaker to chief executive officer in a raft of senior board appointments.

Charlie Holland, who has been head winemaker at the Kent-based estate since 2013 after four years heading up winemaking at rival producer Ridgeview, will take on the CEO role in addition to his new role as chief winemaker. An alumnus of Plumpton College, Holland has also worked as winemaker in vineyards in France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and California.

Holland will manage the day to day running of the business in conjunction with newly promoted chief operating officer Jon Pollard, who has also been promoted to chief vineyard manager in what the company describes as a “highly collaborative and relatively flat organization”.

Pollard, another Plumpton College alumus, joined the company in 2004, when its first vines were planted and will continue to supervises the vineyard operations in both Kent and West Sussex.

The final appointment is an external one, with Mike Paul, managing director of South African and South American importer Western Wines joining as its new Deputy Chairman. Paul will work closely with Weeber, heading up the sales, marketing and distribution of the brand in the domestic and growing international market.

Prior to joining Western Wine in 2002, Paul was managing director of wine agency Percy Fox and more recently spend twelve years at Southcorp as European Director.

The appointments come less than six months after former CEO Ben Walgate left the company after four years, with founder and chairman Andrew Weeber taking over in the interim.

Weeber, who will revert to his role as chairman of the company, said he was delighted to welcome the three men to the board. “Each of them bring their strong professional skills and experience with them and their appointments will ensure that all key functional areas of the business are represented on the board,” he said.

“Gusbourne remains committed to the production and distribution of the highest quality English sparkling wines and the new appointments reinforce our commitment to that end”.

The company statement underlined the company’s intention to grow production, which follows the issuing of a bond scheme in July which aimed to raise up to £10m to support its newly planted vineyards, and a share issue in May 2015, to raise £3.5m to increase capacity and boost working capital.

In May, Gusbourne reported an operating loss of £1.12m in the 12 months to December 2015, which it said was in line with its long-term plans. In the same period, sales rose 9% to £473,000.