Argentina's Bodega Norton goes into administration

Bodega Norton, one of Argentina’s largest wineries, has formally entered administration with reported debts of 64 billion pesos (US$43 million or £32 million) owed to creditors, it has been reported.

Glass of red wine, as a background, vineyards at foot of fhe Andes range. Mendoza, Argentina.

A Mendoza court approved the petition of administration, freezing the assets of the winery (including its vineyards and brands), and imposing restrictions on its Argentinian-based directors, according to Argentinian website, InfoCampo. The court has also appointed a trustee to determine the financial state of the company, setting a deadline of April 2027 for the company to reach an agreement with its creditors.

The petition at the court was formally requested by Joaquín Fernández de Córdova Hohenlohe, the curent president of Norton, which is owned by the Langes-Swarovski Foundation, InfoCampo reported.

The news comes after the winery entered a form of voluntary administration or insolvency proceedings in early December in order to guarantee the continuity of operations and preserve jobs.

The company cited the challenging time for the wine industry “both locally and internationally”, as domestic consumption and wine exports have seen a sharp drop. In a statement at the time, CEO Tomás Lange, who was appointed in July, said the decision was necessary to “order the financial and operational structure” of the company.

The financial problems are indicative of the wider strife the Argentinian wine industry, according to Mendoza-based news publication Memo, who noted in early December that “the winery was forced to seek legal protection due to a perfect economic storm”. In addition to the “dramatic drop in domestic consumption… [and] slowdown in exports…. soaring internal costs driven by inflation and input prices… have decimated profit margins” it said.

The company, which celebrated its 130th anniversary earlier this year, was founded in 1895 in Luján de Cuyo, Mendoza by English engineer Sir Edmund James Palmer Norton but was acquired by the Austrian Langes-Swarovski Foundation in 1989.

Acrimonious in-fighting

However, Argentina local news site InfoCampo also reported in-fighting among the heirs of Gernot Langes-Swarovski, who died in 2021.

As reported by Wine-Searcher, the foundation ownership was split by Langes-Swarovski’s stepson, Michael Halstrick, who was appointed the CEO of Bodega Norton in 1991 and ran it for over 30 years, and his sister Diana Langes-Swarovski, who owns a 60% share. A third brother, Markus, is CEO of the Austrian Swarovski business.

Halstrick left the company in 2023, and has since filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit, along with the company’s former CFO, Diego Merlo, InfoCampo said, claiming that his sister and brother were “asset-stripping” the wine company, and that under his sister’s management the winery’s debt had jumped from US$14 million in 2023 “to US$45 million in less than two years”.

The drinks business has approached representatives of Bodega Norton for comment.