Author Archives: Simon Hendery

A brewpub where you’re spoilt for choice

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Much has changed in the world of beer appreciation over the three decades Jeremy Bayliss has been running pubs in Hawke’s Bay.

He recalls that in the early 1990s, when he was managing Napier’s Criterion Hotel, beer drinkers weren’t exactly spoilt for choice. So it was a big deal, for example, when Steinlager launched a second label and punters suddenly had the option of a Steiny Green or a Steiny Blue.

Fast forward to today’s very different beer scene. Jeremy is the proprietor of the Westshore Beach Inn, Napier’s only ‘brewpub’ where beer is made on-site and 30 varieties are available on tap alone.

The Westshore Beach Inn is home to the Napier Brewing Co, a joint venture between Jeremy and Paul Anderson, founder of Indian restaurant Indigo.

Jeremy began a push to offer drinkers the ultimate in choice about seven years ago when he stocked the Westshore’s fridges with about 200 different craft beers. But in the past few years the focus has shifted to the fresher option of a regularly-changing range of tap beers, including – but not limited to – those produced on-site.

“It was just a natural progression for the business. It was about delivering an experience to our customers and giving them a reason to come here,” he says.

One thing the focus on craft beer wasn’t, he says, was any kind of reflection of his personal skills or interest in brewing.

Jeremy says he has never been a home brewer, failed School Certificate science and “I can’t match two chemicals together, I can’t cook.”

Jeremy says he remains convinced the brewpub model is the way of the future.

“Family-focused, child-friendly brewpubs are more about family than beer. They’re an environment where people can relax and converse, with a great offering of food and beer – that’s what pubs stopped being.”

About 45 to 50 percent of the Westshore Beach Inn’s beer sales are now craft product.

“We don’t make more money from the beer we brew here but we think we’re more successful because we’re presenting to the public something that’s interesting and varies all the time. It’s not that the beer is cheaper – it’s not, it’s more expensive. We can’t brew on-site here cheaper than mainstream beers because of economies of scale,” he says.

“On that basis, for most brewers, if they costed their time, brewing is a labour of love. But not everything’s about money.”

Jeremy believes Hawke’s Bay is well served by its range of craft brewers and hospitality venues selling their products, along with other quality beers.

“There’s a good local community of brewers in Hawke’s Bay. I think we all realise the market is there to be grown. Rather than battling with one another, it’s far better to grow the market and for everybody to rise with the rising tide.”

For those reason’s Napier Brewing Co has always employed a brewer. The role was first undertaken by Damian Birchman of Crazy Bay Beer, then by Matt Searle of Sneaky Brewing. Last year John Bradbury, previously of Eskdale’s Zeelandt Brewery, took up the job.

Jeremy says the three brewers have each brought their own style and personality to the role, producing a wide range of beers, “which is part of the fun”.

“We’ve had a leaning towards American pale ales and done a really good job with those. With John we’re branching out a little bit more. He’s done more work with more malty and English-style beers while still maintaining the APAs.”

www.westshorebeachinn.co.nz

Worshipping craft beer at the Abbey

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When you pitch up at Abbey Cellars, in the Bridge Pa Triangle wine district west of Hastings, the first difficult decision to make is whether you’re there for a beer or a wine.

The Haworth family established the Abbey Cellars wine brand in 2002 and a decade later, son Dermot started getting serious about beer. He began selling small-batch brews through the cellar door, leading to the creation of the Fat Monk label.

“We’re still predominantly a winery, which means we focus much of our energy on wine,” Dermot says.

“But we do now have 10 different styles of beer out in the market – probably the largest number for a Hawke’s Bay brewery.”

The Fat Monk brand was retired last year, with the beer now sold under the Abbey Brewery label. Dermot says the change reflects a maturing of the beer side of the business and aligns it with the wine brand. The distinctive monk imagery associated with the previous name has been retained, however.

Dermot describes Abbey’s beer business model as “half brew-pub, half-brewery” because it involves a combination of selling packaged product nationally while also having the cellar as a destination where visitors can enjoy a beer with food and music.

While Abbey Cellars does well attracting patrons – including cruise ship visitors and cyclists taking advantage of the local cycle trails – Dermot says that trade is limited to the summer months.

So in a bid to extend the cellar door’s appeal as a destination from spring right through to autumn, plans are underway to build a 12-metre covered beer garden on site.

The addition of a bottling and labelling line to the on-site brewery in late 2016 – making the brand “self-sufficient” in terms of beer production–had been a significant investment but one that was quickly paying off, he says. Away from the cellar door, like all the region’s craft beers, Abbey Brewery has faced the challenges of growing its brand recognition with local drinkers in a market where almost all Hawke’s Bay bars are tied into supply contracts with the two major brewing companies, Lion and DB.

On the other hand, a number of pubs have recently added ‘independent’ taps for craft beer and interest in Hawke’s Bay-brewed beers has also been enhanced by New World’s supermarkets in Hastings and Havelock North, which both stock local labels among a fairly extensive range of beers.

“Their range is as good as in larger centres such as Wellington, and this has encouraged people to sample different styles of beers,” Dermot says

“And it’s great to see the bars that have started putting some independent taps in over the last couple of years and are noticeably busier and doing well because of their new offering. It meets the current market demand that we haveinNewZealand.”

 

High Demand for hi-tech talent

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Hawke’s Bay’s technology sector is on a roll but are there enough skilled staff wanting to work here?

Recruiting the skilled staff needed to grow a business has often been one of the top challenges for both start-ups and established technology companies in the Bay.

But there are signs that’s beginning to change. The skyrocketing cost of living in centres such as Auckland has made Hawke’s Bay a more appealing option for software developers and other technology professionals. The establishment of ‘tech hubs’ and factors including improving broadband speeds have also made the region more enticing.

And of course, there’s the lifestyle. Who wouldn’t want to live here if the numbers added up?

Among the local technology firms feeling confident about attracting more staff to the Bay is Re-Leased, a locally-founded cloud-based property management software company that expects to grow its Hawke’s Bay team of 15 staff over the next six months, as part of a global expansion.

“What’s important to tech companies is being able to attract talent,” says Re-Leased founder and CEO Tom Wallace.

“There’s so much competition so you need to be able to offer potential staff members things that are going to attract them. That’s obviously a competitive salary and a great lifestyle, which Hawke’s Bay can offer. They want somewhere that’s a nice space to work.”

For Re-Leased, its “nice space” is the redeveloped Ahuriri site it shares with Xero, NOW and the Tech Collective, a collaborate environment – complete with on-site Adoro café – that is also home to several smaller technology companies.

In the company’s recent hiring experience, being part of a tech hub is one factor that’s helped Re-Leased sign up former Hawke’s Bay people who are delighted to have the opportunity to return home, says Tom.

“One of them wanted to move back with his children but didn’t think there would be any jobs available, then he went online and was surprised to see that we were advertising a role. He’s a really senior developer whom we’re over the moon to be able to bring back.

“Hawke’s Bay now really has something to offer – we’ve got tech hubs, we’re got an amazing place to live and a great place to work. Now it’s just a matter of really educating New Zealand about the opportunity.”

If Xero and Kiwibank can do it …

Xero founder and Hawke’s Bay resident Rod Drury says his company expects to continue growing its Hawke’s Bay headcount after opening an office at the tech hub last year.

“Our staff are loving it in there. We’ve had quite a few go and work there for a few days and I think this year we’ll start seeing some of our Auckland and Wellington staff migrating there. It’s proving you can do high-quality jobs in the provinces, so that’s all working well.”

Rod says many of the good developers Xero hires are in their 20s and more interested in the “urban lifestyle” rather than setting themselves up in places like Hawke’s Bay.

But there is also an older staff demographic who are attracted to the region, whether for lifestyle, family or economic reasons.

“We’re finding that a lot of our people who are moving are people we’ve had with us for a long time, so they know how the system works, they know the business, and they have the skills to be productive. And we can support them in their changing lifestyle requirements.”

That leads on to a wider opportunity for Hawke’s Bay, he says: pitching the benefits of living here to corporates who could establish a presence in the region for fifty to a few hundred staff.“

You’ve got to tell that message not just to the employers but to the employees in Auckland so that they’re demanding it internally: ‘Hey, why can’t we come to Hawke’s Bay?’.”

Rod says the concept had been proven by Xero and Kiwibank, which opened a 100-person Hastings office in 2015 designed to ensure business continuity if a disaster hit its main facilities in Auckland or Wellington.

“I think we’ve moved from theory to practice. We’re seeing it now with the likes of Kiwibank and Xero – it’s actually really good practice that’s stacked up. We’re always waiting for those examples, but now we’re seeing those so we’re in good shape,” he says.

“Both us and Kiwibank open our doors to show other companies it’s the way. [When we’re talking to government departments] in Wellington or Auckland we talk about our Hawke’s Bay call centre, how it’s working for our team, how we have a good supply of loyal staff, and it gives us good resiliency from Wellington as well.”

A place where talent wants to live

Another Hawke’s Bay technology start- up looking for more employees is cloud- based industrial data monitoring company DataNow.

Also based at the Ahuriri tech hub, DataNow is planning to raise capital this year and increase staff numbers from four to fourteen within the next three years.

The company was founded by electrical engineer Erik van den Hout and its customers include WineWorks, Ravensdown and Analytical Research Laboratories (ARL).

Erik says this year’s capital raising will enable DataNow to bring new talent into the team, allowing it to continue to develop its product and service.

Business consultant Ben Deller, the former head of marketing at NOW, has been working with DataNow and says while the expanding technology sector is encouraging more skilled people to consider moving to Hawke’s Bay, the talent pool in the region remains small.

“The late, great scientist Sir Paul Callaghan talked about how New Zealand needed to be a place where talent wants to live. You want to offer all the qualities you can to attract the talent you know you’re going to need – in the case of DataNow, 10 more people over the next three years, which we know is going to be a challenge,” Ben says.

He and Erik say being part of the tech hub had provided invaluable opportunities to bounce ideas off like-minded people as they developed the business’s growth strategy. The location would also be a plus for attracting new staff, they say.

Reinventing retail: The Cuba Street of Hastings

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Take a walk along Heretaunga Street East’s ‘200 block’ and you’ll find the central Hastings precinct buzzing with retail excitement – except in one corner.

The windows of the former long-time home of Denton Wyatt Books on the corner of Heretaunga and Warren Streets, which closed in late 2017, have been whited-out ahead of a major redevelopment.

But elsewhere, along the stretch between Warren Street and Karemu Road, Heretaunga Street East is as vibrant as it’s ever been, with a range of artisan food producers and local retailers plying their trade under awnings decorated with bright hanging flower baskets.

It’s a major transformation from five years ago when the 200 block was the uninviting home of the local WINZ office, second- hand traders and a sex shop doing a roaring trade in synthetic cannabis.

Back then, the street still had heart, with the likes of long-term occupant Cornucopia, but the café and food store’s customers were becoming unhappy with the antics of some of the people turning up to buy legal highs across the road.

Today, WINZ, the sex shop and the second- hand stores are gone, replaced by retailers such as La Petite Chocolat, Y’A Bon French Baker and long-time Hastings furniture business Hutchinson’s.

The space left by Denton Wyatt won’t be vacant for long. Local winemaking couple Kate Galloway and David Ramonteu have secured the site for a craft spirits distillery and cellar door they hope to open around mid-2018.

The distillery will help to further cement the block as the city’s premium precinct for artisan producers of local food and drink.

Hastings businessman Michael Whittaker, who owns several properties in the 200 block, says its transformation is a leading example for New Zealand of how small, local stores can successfully evolve to thrive in an age when shoppers are easily enticed by big box retailing and e-commerce.

Adding a ‘cellar door’ in
the retail mix


Kate, the former chief
winemaker at Alpha Domus, says her link to the block goes back to the late 1990s when she began shopping at Cornucopia and Humanity Books.

The distillery she and David are developing “will be akin to a winery cellar door experience,” where customers will be able to sample, buy and view the production process, but there are no initial plans to include a cocktail bar.

Gerard Barron and Jess Soutar Barron’s decision to open the Common Room bar in 2012 is seen as one of the major recent changes on the block, and last year Nick Pike opened Funbuns, a “Bao buns and cocktails” joint across the road.

“[The distillery] should complement the existing businesses well,” says Kate.

“We’ve been talking about a lot of collaborations with Funbuns and with the Common Room bar so I think it should all work in well. With all these boutique shops and artisan producers around here, we thought these are like-minded people and this is where we’d really like to be,” she says.

“While [the Denton Wyatt building] probably isn’t the easiest building to work with because of the way it’s been modernised, it was really the last of its kind on the block so we thought, well, this is where we want to be so we’d better secure it.”

Kate says the popular union of eatery Carr’s Kitchen and craft beer brand Brave Brewing, with premises further down Warren Street, shows how the Hawke’s Bay drinks market has matured.

“The wineries are great and they’ll always be the backbone of it, but it’s just good to see beer and craft spirit coming into it as well.”

Attracting retailers with heart

Michael Whittaker’s involvement with the block began in 2012 when he bought the disused Albert Hotel property on the Karamu Road corner, subsequently demolishing it to create what is now Albert Square.

“We’d say that the 200 block was pretty derelict – every second shop was vacant – but therein lay the opportunity. We purchased the Albert Hotel with the intention of demolishing it [because] we wanted to develop Albert Square as a green space to really say, hey, this block has changed. So it went from a corner that had a derelict old building with vagrants living in it to a smart green space that the public could use.”

Michael now has interests in a number of properties on the block and has plans up his sleeves for further revitalisation.

“When I started it I always said to myself, it’s going to take 10 years to slowly rework the fabric of the block. I’m not a developer as such, I’d like to think I’m more of a re- developer. I’m not buying these buildings, doing them up and selling them. I’m a long- term investor in Hastings – and I’m putting my money where my mouth is to create something that’s in keeping with 21st century retailing.”

Michael says his strategy has involved only leasing to private, Hawke’s Bay-owned and operated businesses.

“They had to have their heart in the business, they had to have their heart in the block. I had no interest, and still have no interest, in getting chain retailers or corporate retailers in there because that’s a key part of the revitalisation process – you have to have people who believe in the block.”

Secondly, he says, he’s worked to ensure there was “an overriding theme for the block”.

“It’s all about experiential retail and in our case we’ve tried to attract experienced food retailers like La Petite Chocolat, where they do their manufacturing in the shop, and Y’A Bon, which is a full manufacturing bakery – one of the best French bakeries in New Zealand, all behind glass, where you can see how it works,” he says.

“We’ve got future plans for a number of other experiential retailers that we’re talking to, to come into the block as well.”

He is not involved in Kate and David’s redevelopment of the Denton Wyatt site

but says: “We’re working with them very closely and we’re helping out where we can because my view is anyone who wants to put their shoulder to the wheel and create an interesting block, we all have to hang together and help. We’ve got food retailing; what we’re trying to do is really extend that into the hospitality side.”

Fixing Hastings’ CBD

The Hastings CBD has long been criticised for being too large, with its sprawling length deterring shoppers, who instead are attracted to the large format retail zone off Karamu Rd on the central city fringe.

It’s an issue Hastings District Council has been trying to address over the past few years, with a focus on encouraging the creations of ‘precincts’ in line with what is happening on the 200 block, part of a ‘mixed commercial, office, entertainment and retail’ zone.

On the other side of the rail line that bisects the city, the first blocks of Heretaunga Street West are a focused retail precinct, while the council is in the midst of making visitor-

friendly enhancements to the central mall beside the rail track.

Michael, who chaired the Hastings Business Association for four years until standing down in 2017, says creating engaging experiences for shoppers is a key way bricks-and-mortar retailers are remaining competitive against the online shopping explosion.

“At the end of the day, the Internet is going to play an increasing role in retail shopping; however, people will still want – and I think will increasingly demand – a retail experience. They want theatre. You only get so much satisfaction clicking on a screen. So whatever you do you have to make sure [CBD retailing] is interesting and it’s an experience.

“That’s clearly the retail direction of the future and I’d like to think the 200 block is leading that in many ways in New Zealand.”

Big move, no regrets

After 54 years at its previous site, it took a seismic safety nightmare to shift Hutchinson’s into the 200

block, but now the iconic Hastings retailer wouldn’t be anywhere else.

The former Hastings Municipal Building tenant was forced to move in 2014 when the municipal complex, including the Hawke’s Bay Opera House, was closed for major earthquake strengthening work.

At the time, Hutchinson’s director Hamish Gibbs considered the move to be temporary, given the store’s half-century association with the former site, but now there are no plans to shift back.

“It was pretty empty when we moved here and since then all the empty spots have been taken up, which is brilliant, for lots of reasons,” he says.

“It’s full, it’s vibrant, it’s lively and it’s attracting people. People are enjoying the retail experience from the whole block. All the businesses complement each other and there’s just a good vibe and we’re really enjoying it.

“There are lots of clients of ours who are recent arrivals to Hawke’s Bay – whether it’s from New Zealand or overseas – and they just find Hastings is humming.

“[In the Municipal Buildings block] we were pretty much a destination store but now we’re part of a real buzz.

“We’ve invested for the future in here. This is the Cuba Street of Hastings.”

 

 

Local brewers get crafty

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It took a while to take off, but the Hawke’s Bay craft brewing industry is now going from strength to strength as demand grows for fresh, local beers.

There’s plenty of fizz in Hawke’s Bay’s growing craft beer scene at the moment – just ask Giant Brewing’s Chris Ormond (pictured above) and Matt Smith of Brave.

Chris is shifting Giant’s production facility from the back corner of the Origin Earth cheese factory on the outskirts of Havelock North to its own space in the heart of the village. While Matt has moved Brave from his garage to a brewing facility in Hastings, which doubles as a off-licence and bar.

Giant’s move to a larger, more prominent site is just one example of the growth that’s evident as Hawke’s Bay’s craft beer industry continues to go from strength to strength.

The new Donnelly Street location – expected to be up and running by the end of the year – will give Chris more room to brew and also paves the way for plans to sell his beers directly to the public.

“Our bread and butter is wholesaling to mainly local customers. We’ll continue to do

that but next year, we’ll look to add an off- license so we can also do flagon filling and bottle sales,” he says.

It’s almost three years since Chris, a journalist by trade and long-time home brew enthusiast, launched the Giant label with two hands-off partners, including brother Tom who runs Havelock North’s Hawthorne Coffee.

Since those early days, the Giant Brewing label has popped up in a growing number of bars, cafes and shops across Hawke’s Bay and as far afield as Auckland and Blenheim.

The growth of the business has seen it morph from a part-time interest to a full- time gig for Chris this year and Giant’s success reflects premium beer’s growing popularity in the region.

“In the last three years the Hawke’s Bay craft beer scene has really developed. It’s come ahead in leaps and bounds. When we started there wasn’t a huge amount of craft beer in a lot of the boutique cafes and restaurants,” Chris says.

“I talked to quite a few of them and most were keen to get some Giants in the fridge

and they showed a lot of support, and a lot of the ones we started off with are still buying the beer on a weekly or fortnightly basis and it’s gone down really well.”

Chris says 90 per cent of Giant’s business is from repeat customers who re-order on a weekly or fortnightly basis and he’s keen to keep it as a “boutique” operation.

“World domination is certainly not on the agenda. We just want to really get the Hawke’s Bay side of things going as well as we can, get off-license sales up and running, and maintain the good out-of-town customers we’ve got.”

Giant’s steady growth off the back of the local beer market demanding more sophistication and variety is echoed by developments across other Hawke’s Bay players in the craft beer industry, which includes Fat Monk Brewery, Roosters Brew House, Hawke’s Bay Independent Brewery, Zeelandt Brewing, Godsown Brewery and Napier Brewing Company.

Brave – a hobby that got out of control

Matt, who founded Hastings-based Brave Brewing with wife Gemma three years ago, says he’s been blown away by the success of what he calls “a hobby that got out of control”.

Matt & Gemma of Brave

“We started in my home garage, alongside a full-time day job, and just chipped away at it

slowly. Without taking on too much risk and debt at any one time, we upgraded in small steps when we needed to.”

Now Brave has a brewery, cellar door and tasting room at a Warren Street space it shares with Carr’s Kitchen and is brewing its full capacity of 1,000 litres of beer a week.

That will change early next year when a new brewing kit arrives and Matt will be able to quadruple the size of the batch he can brew at any one time.

Matt was stoked to pick up seven medals and the trophy for Best in Class in the US Ale category at this year’s Brewers Guild of NZ Awards, announced in October.

“To be recognised alongside some of the really good, well-established breweries who have a bit of a team behind them, and rostered brewing shifts and fancy equipment and all that sort of thing. It’s pretty cool to be in the same sort of league as them.”

Like Chris, Matt says his future plans are focused on primarily serving the local region.

“I’d like to keep things reasonably small. I’d like to see us as a Hawke’s Bay brewer in the first instance – doing some keg and bottle sales outside Hawke’s Bay but keeping it at a nice manageable level where it’s a lifestyle as much as a business,” he says.

“I don’t have any aspirations for us to become a big million-litre-a-year type of place. I’m quite happy being a smaller player.”