A certain wine company having only one single employee is driving the industry in a whole new direction in Gisborne.

The company, GroCo is a co-operative having merely 34 grower-shareholders, majority of whom lost their supply contracts a year ago in 2009 as the wine companies, also Pernod Ricard and Constellation, made up their minds to withdraw their Gisborne operations.

Due to the deficit of other potential purchasers, and in the wake of the present glut, the growers had a difficult option – to either pull out their vines, or do it on their own.

They created GroCo and hired Warwick Bruce, an ex Pernod Ricard viticultural manager at Gisborne, to regulate the viticulture, act as general manager and also be the only employee of the outfit.

Bruce has three decades of experience in Gisborne wine. Wine co-operatives are a usual in France and Italy, but such a thing is a new in New Zealand.

Bruce said that their company made a harvest of 2200 tonnes this year, which means they are headed towards developing into a medium-sized winery.

Their concept is that growers are unlikely to get any return until they begin selling the wine in 2010-end and 2011-start.