Necessity is the mother of entrepreneurship for a surprising number of people, including one of our leading winemakers.
Necessity is the mother of entrepreneurship for a surprising number of people, including one of our leading winemakers.
Some 55,000 New Zealanders are so-called necessity entrepreneurs; people impelled by events out of their control to set up their own businesses, as distinct from opportunity entrepreneurs, who choose to become self-employed.
Jane Hunter is a necessity entrepreneur – self-employed for survival. If New Zealand had a royal family of wine, the qualified viticulturist would definitely take the title of queen – although, like a monarchy, this role results from events out of her control.
Jane was brought up in South Australian wine country. Her father grew grapes in the Riverland, just north of the famous Barossa Valley. After a short period studying animal husbandry, Jane changed her specialist area to viticulture, gaining an agricultural science degree from the University of Adelaide. In 1983, Jane was employed by Montana, New Zealand, as national viticulturist, in charge of all Montana vineyards; organising research and development and liaising with managers and contract growers. It was in this role that she met Ernie Hunter, an Irishman from Belfast who immigrated to New Zealand in the mid 70s.
The entrepreneur took on various business enterprises and latterly, owned some hotels and liquor outlets in Christchurch. Through his connections, Ernie was convinced to plant a vineyard in Marlborough. He purchased land in the barren countryside and hired a team to manage and plant a vineyard. With no intention at that point to utilise the grapes himself, he established a contract with another winery and continued with his business interests in Christchurch.
“In 1978 there were very few grapes in Marlborough and when I arrived in 1983, Hunter’s had four hectares of Sauvignon Blanc and Montana had about 30 hectares.”
The tale of their introduction is a classic ‘eyes meeting across the room’ scenario.
“Ernie had a wine tasting for John Buck of Te Mata Estate in Hawkes Bay and invited a bunch of local people. I was one of them.”
A year later the couple was married; Ernie taking on a more committed role with the burgeoning Hunter’s estate and Jane carrying on with Montana.
What happened next was a definite curveball affair.
Hunter’s Wines employed a small team at the winery as well as some contract growers and had just started exporting to the UK, US and Australia.
The couple were into their third year of blissful marriage when Ernie was killed in a car accident whilst returning from Christchurch. He was 37.
Jane took the reigns straight away.
“The thought never crossed my mind that I wouldn’t keep the winery going,” she says. “It took three years to settle into the role and realise what I needed to do to keep the business going and make it a success.”
“I was not a career person,” she admits. “It was not a path I would have reached had it not been for Ernie’s death. I would have not arrived here out of anything other than necessity.”
During the takeover period, Jane relied heavily on her winemaker and Tony Jordan, an overseas consultant based in Australia who stepped up and became a director of the company.
“Our winemaker took over management of the whole winery side of things; the intake of grapes, blending, bottling and preparing for sale. Initially, most people were surprised that we appointed a vineyard manager/ viticulturist because that’s what I was good at. I felt good about that decision as I could look out of the window at the vineyards and know whether they were doing their job or not - that’s second nature but what I had to come to grips with was the business side of things.”
Jane recalls the best advice she was ever given was from Tony Jordan.
“He said I had to get overseas to meet all the distributors. Because we’re a small company we have a philosophy that we’ve got to deal with people whom we like and think alike. He told me to meet them all and anyone who I didn’t think I could work with I was going to have to change. That was very difficult because one, I hated flying and two, I’d never been involved in the business side of things and now I’d have to sit down and talk wine and prices with people.”
In 14 days, Jane visited with all of the brand’s established distributors in the UK and USA.
“It was my first visit overseas and only three months after Ernie died. Everyone I met had to go through the ‘we’re really sorry for your loss’ spiel which was incredibly hard.”
She got through that but ended up changing most of the people Hunter’s worked with.
“It was hard advice to follow but in hindsight it was the best. A few of them were very flamboyant and I knew that that wasn’t the type of person I could work with whereas Ernie could rein them in or go with them. Ernie was very Irish and very charismatic and it was difficult for me to fill his shoes.”
Under her expertise, the original vineyard area has increased by 2.5 times its original size and the company’s annual output has grown to around 85,000 cases of wine, nearly 65 percent of which is exported.
Throughout her 25+ years in the industry, Jane says she’s ‘seen it all’.
“You do get more relaxed. You’ve seen it, you’ve coped with it and especially with the weather, there’s not a lot you can do about it so just get on with it. Markets and weather are the biggest variables we face.”
However, Jane found the PR orientation of brands periodically re-inventing themselves a simple concept to handle.
“We’ve found that many of our distributors, in Germany and Belfast particularly, wanted New Zealand family-owned companies because they are family owned themselves. They want to have business relationships with like-minded people. They don’t just want brands. They want names and people.”
For this reason, Hunter’s are looking towards the future with the next generation of wine makers.
The new generation are James and Edward Macdonald, sons of general manager Peter Macdonald and nephews of Jane. They are fourth generation members of the wine industry.
James has completed his wine degree from Lincoln University. He is currently in the Barossa Valley doing vintage with Thorn-Clarke winery – and adding to his experience gained at Hunter’s, and several other Australian and New Zealand wineries.
Edward is at Canterbury University studying towards a B.Com degree and hopes to eventually come back and take charge of the finances while James does the winemaking. Edward has, over the past few years, undertaken local in-store merchandising, worked front of house in the winery cafe and has attended tastings in Melbourne.
Pania Duke, daughter of long-time winemaker Gary Duke, has also joined the company as marketing coordinator, after recently moving back to Marlborough after five years travelling around the world.
The Hunter’s brand is constantly working towards a younger look.
“We’re all old and tired so it’s good that they’re coming through with enthusiastic new ideas and can handle all this social networking stuff.”
Although she hasn’t set a deadline for retirement, Jane regularly announces her plans to step back from day-to-day management of the company – although something always happens that requiring her to return.
“If you own a business, you have to be flexible and move with the times and be creative and step back in when needed.”
Jane advises businesswomen not to be afraid to ask for help and advice in the aftermath of a curveball.
“We’ve never been top heavy at Hunter’s, we’ve always utilised outside consultants. That’s been good because they’ve had a different view on how we should do things because they’re not involved intimately in the business.
If you come through something like I have, people are so willing to help you.”
Jane fiercely believes that every businesswoman has to be her own person. “You can’t live in anyone’s shadow and you can’t always do things the way they’ve been done in the past.”
Precursors to success:
• people who are comfortable with networking
• good at blowing their own trumpet
• disciplined and hungry for success
• are able to clearly articulate their business concept and are more likely to be able to make the transition to entrepreneurship
• a supportive family
• an ability to work alone productively
• some degree of managerial experience.
