Rockit launches HQ sale & leaseback

10th March 2025 By Bridget O'Connell | bridget@propertyticker.co.nz | @propertyticker

Rockit Global has launched a sale and leaseback of its $40m Hasting headquarters among a raft of measures taken to raise capital.

The miniature apple exporter said PwC is advising on the process which, if successful, would see a new owner come in for the 21,000 square metre packhouse, coolstore and global offices located in Irongate, Hastings, which was opened in 2021 off the back of a $40m investment.

It did not disclose a proposed price for any potential deal for the facility, known as Te Ipu, which went live last month as part of a range of options the company is looking at as its apple supply ramps up and it recovers from a tough 2024, when it failed to sell its entire harvest.

This had already led the company to raise $20m from shareholders via a convertible note, and it was currently preparing for mid-year a capital raise, as part of work being done with investment bank Macquarie. 

“There are there are several things that we’ve been working on to improve our financial position and get our capital structure fit for purpose,” chief executive Grant McBeath told the Ticker.

“We’ve got lots of cash improvement opportunities, whether it be opex, whether it be sale and leaseback of our Te Ipu facility, the convertible note, the equity raise.

“So the sale and leaseback went to market last [month] with PwC. It’s incumbent on me as an incoming CEO to look at where our capital is invested and the returns we get from that. I’m really passionate about sales and marketing the brand, the royalties, the license stream, and really maximising us as an exporter, so it’s just one of those options.”

McBeath, who joined the business in September 2024 replacing previous chief executive Mark O’Donnell, added that if it received the right offer, “then we will evaluate that as part of that process”.

The company was growing rapidly, according to McBeath, who said Rockit was already capped out at Te Ipu and using third party packers.

And although there was room on the site for expansion, the company would also soon see orchards at other locations including Canterbury and Gisborne come on stream, and needed a liquid capital profile to support this scale-up. 

“There’s a lot of requirements around that post-harvest environment. We’re growing rapidly, we’ve got to be able to deal with the capacity that we’ve got ” McBeath said. 

“We’ll grow circa 40% year-on-year in 2024 over 2023, and we’ll be circa 80% to 90% bigger this year, another 50% bigger next year. We’re going to make sure we’ve got the right capital structure to be able to invest in the capacity and the capability and the business systems and our brand to make sure we get demand in front of supply.

“We’ve got to continue to invest capital to capture that growth and process that growth. That’s just the reality of a growth business.”