On a glorious late summer evening a group of us, with some visitors from the Wanaka Rotary Club, enjoyed a delightful occasion at Carrick Winery.
Whilst we sat and enjoyed a glass (or two) of Carrick wine, accompanied by delicious pizza, fries and salad Tony and Ali Cleland kept us amused, informed and entertained with the story of their journey from, in Tony's case, a school dropout to the very successful business couple they are today.
A journey that took them from Share Milking in the Waikato to owning their first farm in Southland 35 years ago. The couple now have several farms in northern Southland, based around Mossburn, but these days are resident in Bannockburn.
Fairly early on in his career Tony realised that, he would both prefer and, be more successful, working with people rather than going it alone. Tony is passionate about making a difference and working together with people to achieve positive outcomes - starting from nothing and building a business. With this in mind he started Farm Right, an asset management company. This has been a huge success and now has $1.4 billion in assets throughout NZ, beef, dairy, orchards (mainly apples) and viticulture. The company has recently expanded into Australia, and now have substantial assets there.
Regular visitors to Central Otago, with a house in Wanaka, a favourite stop of their journey was Carrick Vineyard. In one of those serendipity moments Tony and Ali bought Carrick Vineyard/Winery in the summer of 2021/22, they put in the offer on a Monday just before Christmas, it was accepted on Wednesday which was Christmas Eve....not ideal timing.
The offer was accepted as they wanted the complete package, houses, vineyard restaurant other potential purchasers wanted some but not all.... and the rest is history.
When Tony and Ali were married (age 21) they had three goals - firstly to buy their first farm by the time they were 30, secondly by the time they were 40 to have enough financial freedom to do what they wanted and thirdly to be in a position to do business with their kids, if that is what they wanted. These have all been achieved.
On the drawing board they want to continue to develop Carrick, doing up the two houses on the property and developing luxury accommodation for the bike trails.
So watch this space - listening to Tony and Ali you come away with the impression that if they set a goal they achieve it.
