New Zealand expatriate, Eric Watson’s Waynesboro, Georgia-based Cullen Agricultural Holdings (of which Watson owns 57%) originally planned to bring New Zealand dairy farming techniques to the U.S. through a dairy farming venture on as much as 16,000 hectares of land. However, after the financial crisis of 2008, the venture had difficulty finding interested investors, forcing Cullen Agricultural Holdings to sell off 3,635 acres of land and change its strategy. Toward that end, the company announced it has agreed to merge with U.S. iced tea manufacturer Long Island Brand Beverages with the goal of gaining market share in the U.S.’s fragmented ready-to-drink tea market worth US$5.3 billion. The U.S. sector is growing quickly as consumers are increasingly opting for tea, believing it to be healthier than other options. The new entity will be called the Long Island Iced Tea Corp., of which Long Island Brand Beverages will own 63% and Cullen Agricultural will own 37%, and therefore Eric Watson will own 21% of the new company. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015.
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