Pasta and verjuice: SA food icon takes cut in Maggie Beer
One of the state’s top names in the food industry has made a major investment in one of the state’s best-known businesses.
The joint CEO and chairman of South Australian food giant San Remo has taken a 13 per cent stake in loss-making Maggie Beer Holdings for $3 million.
Announced to shareholders today, an entity associated with leading food industry figure Maurice Crotti bought the 53 million shares at a 10 per cent discount.
Crotti – who runs the successful family-owned pasta business that ranked at number 18 in the 2025 South Australian Business Index and is a Food South Australia Hall of Fame inductee – joins another high-profile investor in Maggie Beer Holdings, which recorded losses of $24.3 million in 2025.
Last week, proprietor of beverage giant Bickfords Angelo Kotses lifted his holding in the company to 19.19 per cent, with chair Mark Lindh at the time noting it was a “very exciting” development for the company.
Lindh said Crotti was a “highly credentialed and experienced operator in our sector”.
“With significant progress made in the last eight months in reducing costs across the company, this placement will both further strengthen our balance sheet and improve the working capital of the company to continue to grow the organisation,” Lindh said.
Cooking identity Maggie Beer founded Maggie Beer Products in the late 70s but sold nearly half of the company to an ASX-listed business in 2016.
That ASX-listed entity bought the remaining 52 per cent of Maggie Beer Products in 2020 and rebranded to Maggie Beer Holdings. Beer remains involved with the business as a non-executive director.
Stay informed, daily
MBH improved sales to $76.3 million in the last financial year, and its 2024 sale of Paris Creek Farms eliminated more than $2 million of trading losses and cashflow, the company said.
Despite the $24.3 million statutory loss, MBH said its turnaround strategy had been implemented.
“We believe these necessary changes, which have been implemented in the last six months, have the group well positioned for a strong first half in FY26,” Lindh said.
He said revenue in MBH business units – Hampers & Gifts Australia and Maggie Beer Products – provided the group an additional $2.8 million on the previous corresponding period.
“Our focus in FY26 is now very much on driving profitable growth, supported by investments made in the last year in our e-commerce platforms and underpinned by an ongoing cost-out programme that delivered $1.8 million in annualised savings in the second half of FY25,” he said.
