After working up to 70 hours a week, self-confessed "control freak" Maggie Beer says she finally feels ready to let go of the eponymous culinary empire she has built over more than 40 years.
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The cooking icon said she was "incredibly emotional" after agreeing to sell her remaining 52 per cent stake in Maggie Beer Products to ASX-listed Longtable Group for $10 million, handing it full ownership of the business.
"At 74, I never want to retire, but I have been working up to 70 hours a week ... and I want to be a bit more free," Beer said .
"I have been a control freak all my life. The reason I feel I can let go is that I have the most amazing management team at Maggie Beer Products, which I have such trust in."
Maggie Beer Products evolved out of Pheasant Farm in South Australia's Barossa Valley, where Beer started growing grapes and breeding pheasants in 1973 and later opened an award-winning restaurant.
Today, the business makes a range of gourmet ice creams, jams, sauces, pastes and cooking ingredients, with total sales of almost $19 million last year.
Beer has become a household name after publishing 10 books and appearing on TV shows including The Cook and the Chef and MasterChef.
She will retain a role in product development for two years and intends to become a director of Longtable, which bought 48 per cent of her business in 2016.
After working with Longtable for 2½ years, Beer said she trusted its management to safeguard her legacy.
“We’ve been through some bad times in the business, but we’ve come out of that because of good management. There is a trust that is there that these are good partners to take over the rest," she said. "The ethos will remain the same."
The parties have agreed to a $10 million sale – $8.5 million in cash, $1 million in Longtable shares and $500,000 as a convertible note – pending the completion of a $13.7 million capital raising.
Longtable, which was previously known as Primary Opinion, paid $15 million for its original stake, with $5 million of that going to the Beer family and $10 million invested into the company to expand its operations.
The Maggie Beer business ran at a $1.9 million loss last year and a $2.3 million loss in 2017, including a $1.8 million impairment. It turned a $1.2 million profit in the first half of this financial year, Longtable said.
"The excitement for us is really the Maggie Beer brand and what it stands for," Longtable managing director Laura McBain said.
"They’ve recently launched a cheese range of products – that was a substantial transformation for the business and its sales trajectory, and it highlights the opportunity for a brand like Maggie Beer and what it can do when it's positioned in the right category."
Ms McBain, the former chief executive of baby formula and food producer Bellamy's, said the company wanted to expand Maggie Beer products into new categories "in collaboration with the major supermarkets".
The relationship with supermarkets has been challenging at times, with sales dented after Maggie Beer Ice Cream was pulled from Woolworths shelves in 2017.
Longtable also owns South Australian-based biodynamic dairy business B.-d. Farm Paris Creek and Melbourne dairy business Saint David Dairy.
Longtable's shares, which last traded at 33.5¢, were in a trading halt pending finalisation of the deal and the potential capital raising.
