WeeklySA_AdminBEGINNINGS: Like proverbial Phoenix bird, the Franschhoek winery poised to rise from the ashes of onerous operational woes which shattered a noble dream…
By Len Maseko
This week marked the launch of a new company – black owned – established to continue the ambitious journey of land restitution and community development by the once-troubled Solms-Delta winery in the Cape Winelands.
The deal sees a new venture entirely owned by African-American entrepreneur Tommy Hall taking over the running of the Franschhoek Valley farm through his new entity, Solms-Delta Wine Company. In terms of the new development, the entity has been established as a stand-alone wine venture 100% black-owned by the Hall family.
He will take over a project begun in 2001 by neuroscientist Mark Solms and British philanthropist Richard Astor, the two original owners who handed over a third of the business to the farmworkers to promote empowerment and land transformation.
However, the noble venture would later experience operational challenges in the following decade or so, which eventually saw the government stepping in to save the project in 2016. A ground-breaking agreement between the Solms-Delta estate and the national government saw the farm’s workers take over 45% of the business (including brand and land), funded by the government’s National Empowerment Fund, with itself taking 5%.
However, despite the financial support injection, the estate continued to operate at a loss, resulting in a business rescue and liquidation processes a few years later. Two years of the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying lockdowns added to the financial woes of a business founded on a progressive transformation model.
Fast-forward to 2023, enter Tommy Hall, a global operations director for a Fortune 500 technology company, whose family developed an affinity to South Africa while on a visit to reconnect with their ancestral roots brutally severed by the slave trade centuries ago. Born in Detroit, Michigan, the businessman lives in Houston in Texas.
This week, Hall and Solms announced the deal in Cape Town, reviving the ambitious journey of land restitution begun by Solms in 2001, but interrupted by unforeseen elements which put a spoke into the wheels of transformation-based endeavour primed for an uncharted path.
By 2018, Solms-Delta’s land reform deal had fallen apart and a once-thriving estate shattered, along with its cultural outreach and skills development programmes Solms had pioneered. A dream – with hindsight – deferred for the right time.
While Solms’ goals were hailed as laudable, albeit, between the cost of land restitution and the economic challenges of the wine industry, his dream of community development underscored by a business model giving workers the title deed to the lands they worked, seemed way ahead of their time.
Meanwhile, the new broom is described as a man who does not leave things to chance; meticulous planning, managing risk and being prepared for the unexpected.
And yet, fate must have played a hand in bringing Hall and his family to the picturesque Franschhoek valley. For just as Tommy, wife Crystal and son Gavin were seeking primarily to carve out a life on the continent with which they feel a deep kinship, a chance encounter led Hall to the gates of a historic Cape farm. A great irony, and epiphanous coincidence, given the farm’s history with slavery centuries ago, and with Hall being a descendant of slaves.
Anthropological and archaeological investigations in the past had once revealed that everything on the farm, from vineyards to the Cape Dutch buildings, was built by slaves.The personal stories and artefacts are on display in the Museum van der Caab and the Music van der Caab Centre. The farm dates back to 1740, and tells the story of the slave heritage to the present day.
About the farm’s recent chequered wine-trade past, Hall says: “Maybe the goals were too high for the time-line they set, but the vision was sound. What Mark Solms intended to do was the right thing. How it turned out was another matter. We are hoping to change that.
“But this is not about us coming in and buying up the farms that once constituted Solms-Delta. This is a separate company that has many of the same goals as Mark Solms, in terms of community upliftment, skills development and employment opportunities. However, we want to make sure that we do it in a manner which is both socially equitable and financially viable over the long term.”
Hall and Solms plan to reopen Fyndraai, the farm’s restaurant, as well as the adjoining Museum van de Caab, with exhibits detailing the shared social and cultural histories of the old farms in the Franschhoek Valley. Hall also plans to revive the ambitious programme of human development and educational projects, which will be re-established to effect long-term development of winelands communities.
“We want to be involved in driving the change, especially in this corner of the Cape Winelands, where a large group of people have been historically disadvantaged,” says Hall. “In my job within the technology industry, every day is about problem-solving. Although I’m sure there are many complexities that I will need to come to understand, this seems to be a problem that can be tackled with some fresh perspectives.”
“I am just thrilled that we have found a common vision to work together on some of the issues that were central to the founding of Solms-Delta more than 20 years ago,” adds Mark Solms, who is advising Hall on the establishment of the new company and reviving the farmlands.
Once the initial phase is complete, the priority will be returning the vineyards – largely neglected over the last six years – to productivity: an opportunity to create much-needed employment and training opportunities, while establishing the brand in domestic and international markets. The first harvest is expected from a small portion of the Delta farm vineyards in 2024, with the remainder hoped to be back in full production by 2026
