- Marks the milestone with a $30,000 community donation to Pier 21 Museum and
Children's Wish Foundation -
TRURO, NS, June 8, 2015 /CNW/ - Andrew Peller Limited (APL),
the largest Canadian-owned winery in the country, celebrates 50
years of winemaking in Truro, Nova
Scotia. To mark the occasion the company will be donating
$1 from every purchase of Peller
Estates French Cross sold in the NSLC from June 8 – July 10,
2015 to Pier 21 Museum, Canada's National Museum of Immigration in
Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the
Children's Wish Foundation. Each of the organizations will
receive approximately $15,000.
Founder Andrew Peller arrived at
Pier 21 from Hungary in 1927 with
$5 in his pocket. With three
generations of excellence, the award winning winery now stands at
1,200 employees in Canada, leading
wine brands from coast to coast and is now over $300 million in sales.
"My grandfather was so proud of becoming Canadian and had a
special place in his heart for Nova
Scotia," said John E. Peller,
grandson of Andrew Peller and the
CEO of APL. "He told many great stories of the opening of the
Truro winery and the struggles at
the time. But as he said when it's really hard and times are
rough, yet you succeed, it can be the greatest accomplishment."
The Truro Winery opened in 1965 with handful of employees and
only a few products -- Fine Old Sherry and assorted sweet
wines. Today it is the largest winery in Nova Scotia with four of the top 15 selling
brands in the province. Every five seconds a person in
Nova Scotia buys a Peller
wine.
Nova Scotia is an important
market and the company continues to invest in the Truro operations. APL recently installed a new
filler and new tanks that will improve efficiency and production
and significantly increase the capacity at the winery.
One of the company's long time employees, Murray Hall has spent 43 years with APL and
remembers the day the winery opened, "it was the biggest thing that
had ever happened in Truro, I
remember it like yesterday. I was so excited seven years
later to join the company and have been there ever since."
Like many immigrants to Canada,
Andrew Peller was a serial
entrepreneur and came up with the idea of starting a winery from
his roots in Hungary.
Bringing together families and friends to enjoy food and wine
at the table, just as he had done in Europe, was something he had not really
experienced in Canada and
something he dearly missed. As he so passionately said, "it's the
simple things in life that bring us the greatest joy." APL
(then Andres Wines) was born in 1961
in Port Moody, B.C. and then
expanded across the company opening wineries in Calgary, Alberta, Truro, Nova Scotia and eventually in
Ontario.
About Andrew Peller Limited
Andrew Peller Limited is a
leading producer and marketer of quality wines in Canada. With wineries in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova
Scotia, the Company markets wines produced from grapes grown
in Ontario's Niagara Peninsula,
British Columbia's Okanagan and
Similkameen Valleys, and from vineyards around the world. The
Company's award-winning premium and ultra-premium VQA brands
include Peller Estates, Trius, Thirty Bench, Crush, Wayne Gretzky, Sandhill, Calona Vineyards Artist
Series, and Red Rooster. Complementing these premium brands are a
number of popularly priced varietal brands including Peller Estates
French Cross in the East, Peller Estates Proprietors Reserve in the
West, Copper Moon, XOXO, skinnygrape, Black Cellar and Verano.
Hochtaler, Domaine D'Or, Schloss Laderheim, Royal, and Sommet are
our key value priced brands. More information about the Company can
be found at www.andrewpeller.com. Andrew Peller Limited common
shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbols ADW.A and
ADW.B).
SOURCE Andrew Peller Ltd.