Business vouchers a boost for Great Southern wineries, brewery

Four Great Southern wine and beer producers were poured a cash splash on Friday, receiving more than $26,000 in State Government funding to grow their local businesses.

Thirty WA businesses will share in $174,190 under the third round of the WA Government’s Agrifood and Beverage Voucher Program which provides funds, matched by the businesses, to improve their operations.

Albany’s Wilson Brewing Company received $4250 and Frankland River’s Lange Estate secured $10,000 for their online sales and marketing, Porongurup’s Shepherd’s Hut Wines received $2000 and Singlefile Wines received $10,000 for manufacturing.

Announcing the recipients in Albany, Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the voucher program aimed to help businesses source professional advice across marketing, sales and sustainability.

Shepherd’s Hut Wines was one of the first businesses to receive funding to target environmental sustainability and social responsibility under the voucher program.

“This year we added a new stream which was providing that professional assistance to businesses that really wanted to get on top of their sustainability, to really look at their carbon footprint and how they manage all those sustainability issues on their property,” Ms MacTiernan said.

“We all know that this is going to be a real challenge over the next decade or so, to make sure they can account for their carbon, that they can meet the increasingly high standards that are being required in the environmental sustainability demands of their customers.”

Shepherd’s Hut Wines vineyard and marketing manager Laura Wishart said their business was eager to investigate their environmental impact.

“We are looking to use the voucher to look at our carbon footprint and other environmental indicators in our business to see where we currently stand and what we can do better,” Ms Wishart said.

“This is something we hold really dear to us as a business and as individuals but also I think this is increasingly important and it is something consumers want to see taken seriously.”