Foley Wines has named Mike Higgins as its permanent chief executive, effective immediately, after acting in the role on an interim basis since February.
Higgins stepped in this year following the departure of Mark Turnbull, who resigned as a director on 17 February and left the CEO post on 30 April.
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Turnbull had led the company since its 2012 merger with The New Zealand Wine Company, which was later rebranded as Foley Wines.
Higgins joined the broader Foley New Zealand Group in December as chief executive of Foley Hospitality, overseeing Bill Foley’s hospitality and lodge interests in the country.
In a stock exchange notice today (17 October), chair Paul Brock said: “Mike’s significant commercial experience with growth businesses in New Zealand will add real value to our customers and our people. He will play a key role in leading the continued success of Foley Wines.”
Foley is the company’s major shareholder and is also an investor in the US wine sector.
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By GlobalDataBefore joining Foley, Higgins was chief commercial officer at Auckland FC, contributing to the club’s launch in its first season.
From September 2000 until June 2023, Higgins worked nearly 23 years at Clemenger Group in Auckland, holding senior finance and operational roles including CFO and COO.
During that period, he also took on finance leadership positions across several related and other organisations: he was finance director at Touchcast NZ in Wellington from September 2011 to July 2015; CFO at Colenso BBDO in Auckland from April 2013 to June 2015; and managing partner of finance at .99 Enterprises (part of the Clemenger Group) from May 2012 to March 2013.
Foley Wines manages a portfolio of wineries and brands across New Zealand wine regions, including Vavasour, Martinborough Vineyard and Lighthouse Gin.
Higgins commented: “Foley Wines has a group of very dedicated and talented people who are very focused on producing great wines that people love to drink around the world. My continued focus will be on enhancing the business’ growth and premiumisation strategy to deliver value to our customers, team members and shareholders.”
For the year ended 30 June, bottled wine revenue increased 6% to NZ$66.3m ($37.9m) and case volumes grew 9% to 610,000.
The company’s earnings, however, weakened: operating earnings fell 66.4% to NZ$1.3m, with an after-tax loss of NZ$1.8m, down 54.5%. Operating EBITDA declined 21.9% to $12.6m.
Commenting on the results in August, Higgins said the 2025 financial year was “challenging for the company and the New Zealand wine industry”.
He added: “Whilst the wider market for packaged wine was down 7% on last year, our case sales were up 9% in the same period, with export case sales up 14.6%. This demonstrates our premiumisation strategy and the company’s continued focus on developing strong routes to market for our brands is delivering results.”
The company said investment and focus on Asian markets had delivered material growth.
“We expect these markets to grow in the future with an emphasis on our higher end premium wines,” Higgins said.
