IT has been a hive of activity at one of Australia's leading wine producers, with Brown Brothers officially opening its newest bottling facility.
With capabilities of producing 40,000 bottles a day, staff celebrated the facility, aptly named 'The HIVE' last week.
Leaders at the renowned company spoke about the great challenges in building the facility during covid without the onsite assistance of international engineers.
But five years down the track the facility is fully operational, employing 40 full-time staff across three shifts, five days a week.
HIVE stands for harvesting, innovation, value and efficiency and Brown Family Wine Group CEO Cameron MacFarlane explained other symbolism weaved into its name.
Latest Stories
Among the surrounds of luscious vineyards, Mr MacFarlane made note of the bees often seen flying around with a job to do with pollination.
He said this really talks to the energy of the place, community, family and business working together to produce something amazing.
The HIVE came into place during covid and Mr MacFarlane talked about the challenges at this time and the team's motivation, resilience and resourcefulness to make the project a reality.
"There was a football team of Italian engineers who were on their way and the plane was cancelled and they weren't able to come," he said.
"Using Teams, manuals and probably Youtube, they worked it out and now the product is an incredible manufacturing and bottling facility."
As you walk from the carpark to the massive building that is The HIVE, four vibrant murals greet you, a sight to behold themselves.
Brown Brothers winemaker Katherine Brown spoke about the art project and how it came about.
"From engaging with the Rural City of Wangaratta they came up with the idea to get some young people from Wangaratta to paint our walls for us," Ms Brown said.
"An expression of interest went out and we were so lucky to have four young women contact us wanting to paint the Brown Family Wine Group company values."
Through mentor Chris Henderson, who grew up in the Wangaratta area, four murals were created.
They include Respect by Kayleigh, Wellbeing by Rachel, Innovation by Sienna, and Pride by Olivia.
"These are now on our walls for our team who work in The HIVE to drive into this carpark every day and look up on that wall and see bright, amazing pictures to really think about our values as they work here," Ms Brown said.
A vision of sustainability was a key message that was conveyed at the opening of The HIVE and chief viticulturalist Brett McClen noted that right from the outset this building was designed to think about the future.
"That incorporates renewable energy generation stored on the roof, state of the art insulation to minimise the amount of heating and cooling required and also cutting edge technology to minimise waste and associated emissions," he said.
"The renewable energy solar installed has been really successful to the point it has reduced our overall direct greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent.
"As we embark on a journey of decarbonising our business, that's a really significant chunk of our carbon emission reduction target.
"It's been successful to the point that commissioning of phase two of our onsite solar generation has taken place.
"That's going to take us to a point where of the entire electricity consumption, which incorporates all of our vineyards across Victoria and Tasmania, 20 per cent of that comes from what we generate onsite at Milawa.
"It's more than just a building, this is proof that sustainability can and must go hand in hand with company growth and evolution."
Indi MP Helen Haines officially opened The HIVE and she described the event as an auspicious moment.
"If I was to use one word to sum up what I see when I visit here and meet with the people who were part of this extraordinary family business, it's 'optimism'.
Dr Haines acknowledged the Brown family, the staff, the local youth who painted the murals, and women in leadership for making The HIVE happen.
She said right now in the world we need more optimism and BFWG is ambitious, highly optimistic, inclusive and an inspiring company.
