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.”

Airport Expansion takes off

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A major redevelopment of the Hawke’s Bay Airport is underway that will ensure the terminal is fit for purpose after a 37 percent increase in passengers over the last two years.

The airport is flying high at the moment, having reported a record net profit of $1.7m on a turnover of $6.1 million for the year ended June 2017. The Airport Company achieved all its financial performance targets, with revenue up 16 percent from the previous year.

Construction will be in full swing over summer, with a temporary arrivals hall being set up in the area formally used for rental car parking to enable a new arrivals area to be built at the southern end of the terminal.

Hawke’s Bay Airport chief executive Nick Story says strong passenger growth and the resulting demands on existing airport infrastructure is the catalyst for the multimillion-dollar expansion. In the last two years passenger movements have risen 37 per cent to 652,000 passengers.

There was an 11 percent increase in aircraft movements for the year with a total of 14,256.

“We have had exponential growth over the last couple of years due to a significant increase in airline capacity, driven by the arrival of a second airline in Jetstar and Air New Zealand switching to larger capacity aircrafts, all of which has created competition for passengers and enabled growth of the region’s business and tourism sectors.”

The expanded terminal will increase in size from 2,500 m2 to 3,800 m2 to accommodate the growth in passenger movements and visitors to the airport.

“The airport is a major gateway for the region, so as well as catering for increased passengers and visitors, the expansion is also about enhancing their experience,” Nick says.

As The Profit was going to print, the lead construction contractor was due to be confimed. A local project manager, Steve Birkhead, has been involved through the final design stages of the project and will continue in this role through to the terminal being fully operational in early 2019.

The staged construction project will see the new check-in area constructed at the southern end of the terminal, followed by a central area with a large cafe accommodating 110 people, visitor seating and new bathrooms.

Stage 3 will be a new automated baggage handling system at the northern end, a dedicated arrivals gate, new offices for Air New Zealand, Jetstar and Sound Air, as well as a substantially expanded Air New Zealand regional lounge and rental car concierge area.

During construction Air New Zealand will relocate its regional lounge to a pre-fabricated building to be situated in the current staff car park area.

“We are aiming to keep the airport operating on a business as usual basis. There will be disruptions but our aim is to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.

“We will have something exciting to look forward to in 2019, a larger, more functional and vibrant terminal.”

Nick says the design enables future growth with the majority of the complex design elements in the centre of the building, making additional expansion to the north simple and cost-efficient.

The project is to be internally funded by Hawke’s Bay Airport Limited, enabled by the airport company’s strong financial performance, and will not require any financial support from current shareholders Napier City Council, Hastings District Council and the Crown.

The new-look terminal has been designed by local architects Paris Magdalinos Architects. PMA architect Chris Ainsworth said the terminal has been designed in the shape of a Kuaka (godwit) bird in flight.

“A key consideration of the brief was to tell the story of the Hawke’s Bay area, which had to be integrated into the building’s architecture and not simply applied later on by using artwork. It is important to tell our story, in what is one of the key gateways into the Hawke’s Bay.

“The Kuaka achieves some amazing feats, flying over 8,000 kilometres every year to Alaska, which is pretty incredible for such a small bird,” says Chris.

The Kuaka-inspired shape will be further showcased inside the terminal using a modern approach to traditional Maori carving.

A new entranceway to the airport is also progressing well and under development at the intersection of Watchman Road, SH2 and Meeanee Quay. This project will be completed by August 2018.

Watch video announcement here 

 

A visitor from Hawke’s Bay

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The Lions certainly roared throughout New Zealand during June and July. The team drew the series with the All Blacks and their huge supporter base spent up large in bars and restaurants from Northland to Dunedin.

I went to a few games in 2005 with a mate, the last Lions tour, and we had such a great time that there was no way we were going to miss them this time.

I went into the ballot for test tickets and although I had several entries, I only got tickets for the last test in Auckland. I was gutted about this as I thought the series would be all over by then, two–nil to the All Blacks. How wrong could I have been!

Anyway, our tour schedule included a trip down south for the Highlanders game, the Maori match in Rotorua, Hurricanes in the capital and the third test, which to the joy of many became the decider.

The four games were a memorable experience. We went mountain biking in Queenstown, where after my mate Tim got injured, we turned our interest into tasting Central Otago wines. It was during our Sunday wine tour that we met up with my old school mate Chris Keys, now the head winemaker at Gibbston Valley.

Chris gave us a tour of the winery, where he talked to us about the success of the tourism side of the winery and in his words: “Central Otago is well ahead of Hawke’s Bay when it comes to the wine trail experience.” Chris is featured on pages 8 and 9.

Queenstown was abuzz with star spotting with the likes of Tom Cruise in town for the filming of Mission Impossible 6. Another Hawke’s Bay export – a cellar door rep at Peregrine – suggested we go and have a drink at Atlas Bar where we might bump into some of the film crew. Her tip was spot on as we meet up with the technical sound crew, with one of the guys saying, “Superman will be joining us soon”.

We thought nothing of it but soon after a tall muscular guy turned up and was warmly welcomed by the crew. We talked for a while but I had no idea I was talking to Henry Cavill, the most recent Superman star.

Superman stayed for about an hour before flying off to rescue some damsel in distress (joking) while we moved on to a restaurant with the others, shared a bottle of Craggy Range Syrah and had a great evening.

We exchanged emails and urged them to visit Hawke’s Bay, if they got the chance.

We weren’t the only ones trying to lure visitors to Hawke’s Bay…

Hawke’s Bay Tourism set up a mini Hawke’s Bay experience in Wellington the day after the Hurricanes and Lions game. Local entrepreneur Rick Kirkland offered one of his two dome tents to Annie Dundas to promote the region’s tourism scene.

Rick bought two awesome large-scale domes last year and won the contract for Lions tour sponsor DHL to create a fan zone on the waterfronts of Wellington and Auckland, as well as the other match host regions.

Annie says the idea of ‘taking the Bay to the capital’ paid off, with many Lions fans visiting either between the Hurricanes game and the second test (also held in Wellington) or on their way back up to Auckland for the third test.

It was great to see a collaborative initiative in action. Craggy Range and Trinity Hill shared a tasting area, Annie was cooking up New Zealand’s best bacon (Holly Bacon) and

selling the quintessential English breakfast, bacon butties, while Takaroa Trails promoted our extensive cycle trails.

So back to the third test … Tim and I were still confident of a big win in Auckland. Well, we all know the outcome and to be honest, it was a well-deserved result for the Lions. Some fans spend more than £50,000 and for that investment, you do want some return!

I look forward to the next tour in 12 years’ time!

 

Top Award for Havelock North’s Mia Dolce

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Skin centre Mia Dolce, has been awarded the top honour of Distinction by Dermalogica New Zealand, excelling against a list of criteria that recognises education, innovation, product and service, marketing and commitment.

Located in the heart of Havelock North Village, Mia Dolce offers a range of beauty therapy services, including specialised Dermalogica skin treatments, body massage, spa packages, hands and feet, hair removal, tanning and collagen induction therapy.

Mia Dolce owner and professional skin therapist Claire Jarman says: “It’s such an honor to receive this award, the highest level of recognition by Dermalogica! For the previous three years we have received merit, the next level down, so we’re thrilled to be awarded distinction and sit amongst the top six skin centres in New Zealand.

“The award is testament to my incredible team who always go above and beyond. We have made a concerted effort to advance our training in the past year, giving us the tools to help achieve great results for our clients. And of course, none of this would be possible without our amazing clients.

“Seven years ago, I opened the doors with two staff; we now employ six and have a large clientele. We love supporting the community and being recognised as a top New Zealand skin centre.”

Mia Dolce also won the favourite hair and beauty category at the Havelock North Business Awards last year. This year’s awards will be held at Black Barn in September with online voting via www.lovehavelocknorthnz. co.nz

For the past five years, Claire and her team have also taught basic skincare to Year 12 students at Woodford House. As part of this programme, Mia Dolce donates a Dermalogica skincare pack and an eyelash tint or brow shape to all the students involved.

“Claire and her team continue to impress us with their dedication to their clients and community. They have worked incredibly hard to upskill, innovate and go above and beyond, which is reflected in this award. We look forward to continuing to work with Mia Dolce to help them access success,” says Natasha Bourke, managing director of Dermalogica New Zealand.

 

Hurford Parker – Good cover is just one part to being a leading local insurance provider

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Experienced insurance broker Jeff Parker has seen disasters such as fires destroy Hawke’s Bay business premises and can tell the good and the bad stories when it comes to insurance cover and business continuity.

Jeff and the late Jim Hurford set up Hurford Parker on 1 June 1994 on the simple ethos that people want to know who they are signing a long-term relationship with and that that insurance broker would be by their side should the unfortunate occur.

“We were driven to setting up this business by wanting to ensure every transaction had a familiar face to it. The larger international companies no longer offered that level of service and we wanted to provide first- class service; so that when there’s a claim, especially when it’s in an emotional situation such as a fire, our clients have the comfort of having a local whom they could talk to,” Jeff says.

“The rubber hits the road when there is a claim and we always tell our clients that we want them well insured because we will be the first call they make when disaster strikes and we want to say to ‘you’re very well covered’.”

Jeff and the team, led by fellow director Ashley Rowe and group manager Dean Sewell, have built a strong portfolio of local business and rural clients across a wide range of industry sectors, and with it has come a level of knowledge and understanding of the risks associated with these businesses.

They have also broadened their service range to include personal insurance and life and medical cover insurance.

“Being based in Hawke’s Bay means we have a wide range of clients across many sectors but at the same time, we have got to know our clients’ businesses very well, which ensures they are not only well covered in the event of a disaster but they have a plan in place to keep the business running, staff employed and customers happy.”

An example that many will remember is the large fire that took place at VJ Distributors on a hot and sunny Saturday in March 2006.

Many businesses would never have recovered from that devastating blow but VJ Distributors had Hurford Parker at their side, not only paving the way through the claim but helping to put in place a plan that ensured the business got up and running again quickly.

We spend a lot of time on site with clients understanding the business and its processes. This is when your business continuity plan is so important and that’s where we like to start – looking at the business and its set of obvious risks as well as identifying the game-changing risks, some of which are insurable and some that aren’t but can still have a plan in place for.

Hurford Parker’s senior management team – Dean Sewell, Jeff Parker (Managing Director), Ashley Rowe and Will Parker.

In a singular loss (events such as a fire) there’s loss of market, competition and all those sorts of things, they are key risks, but then you look at your major assets such as a building and equipment and you need to realise what the impact of a fire has on your business and how quickly you can get back up and running.

“It’s then entirely different if it’s an event that has created multiple losses, such as an earthquake, when your business isn’t the only one affected. It’s then not that easy to find a new premise as many businesses are also looking too.

“The key is to have a plan that identifies both types of events, those that will only impact your business as well as those that will impact many businesses.

“People automatically assume that insurance will cover everything, but in the event of an earthquake your insurer will only pay out to a certain amount. The idea is to keep the business going and maintaining the level of turnover into the future because it’s all very well getting paid out during your indemnity period if your business goes under, but what’s the long-term future look like?”

Jeff estimates that many businesses are underinsured and predicts that the figure could be as high as 60–65 percent of businesses that don’t have the cover they need should disaster strike.

He points to Edgecumbe, which was hit by severe flooding earlier this year, and reports rapidly rising building costs are leaving 85 percent of New Zealand homeowners underinsured.

“In the case of Edgecumbe, the number of underinsurance or no insurance was large and although we are advocates for people to be well insured, it’s obvious in these situations that people aren’t covered.

“Most commercial business people understand the value of having insurance but it is only one part of business continuity planning.”

Hurford Parker is a founding member of a powerful group of independent New Zealand brokers called NZbrokers Management Ltd, and collectively the group employs more than 500 staff who between them place insurance business with local and international insurers for 120,000 clients with premiums in excess of $440 million.

NZbrokerswasformedtodeliveradditional client benefits for exclusive use by member brokers, including the development of exclusive insurance products.

Jeff says the team at Hurford Parker has a wealth of experience and is well equipped to provide first-class service and customised products.

The business is also focussed on succession planning in the business and the mantle has been taken up by Ashley and Dean along with Jeff’s son William Parker, who joined the firm in January after working for three of the largest insurance broker firms in New Zealand, Australia and London.

William’s arrival has also inspired a new look for the firm that includes new branding and marketing materials, such as a refreshed website. William hopes that not only will the new look create new business opportunities but help recruit new talent.

“To recruit new talent is very difficult, which is a New Zealand problem, but if we had a better education pathway into insurance – like in the UK, – then the talent pool would be bigger.”

www.hurfordparker.co.nz

Havelock North Tyres – More tread in the game than most

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You would get bald tyres driving around Hawke’s Bay trying to find someone with more knowledge on tyres than Havelock North Tyre and Alignment owner Greg Nicholson.

The tyre industry runs as deep as new tyre tread in Greg’s life, he and wife Fiona even named their youngest son after Greg’s favourite tyre brand – Cooper.

Greg left school in Morrinsville in 1982 and went straight into the tyre industry with Paramount Tyres, where he started to learn as much as he could about the industry.

After 11 years working for Paramount the business was bought out by a large global brand and Greg decided to set up his own business.

He founded Hawke’s Bay Tyres in Napier in 1993, targeting the truck tyre market with aspirations of setting up a branch network in Hawke’s Bay and then bought the Havelock North tyre service in 2003.

The decision to grow the Havelock North business has been two-fold. Not only has the businesses broadened its services and tyre products with brands such as Cooper, Yokohama, GT Radial and Bridgestone but it has rekindled the feeling of community spirit that Greg liked so much growing up in Morrinsville.

“Morrinsville has a strong sense of community and Havelock has the same appeal. We’ve got to know our customers really well, we have some that come in once a week just to get their tyre pressure checked.”

Since 2003 Greg has set about broadening its customer base which had relied on locals getting replacement tyres for the family car to adding a 24/7 fleet service for the farming and horticulture businesses around the Bay.

“I saw an opportunity to grow the business up, which was starting to move away from its core business and delve into doing warrant of fitnesses. I introduced mobile tyre servicing and concentrated on selling and repairing tyres and left the warrant of fitness and servicing to the garages and instead supplied them with tyres.

Greg also saw a gap in the market to supply tractor tyres to the farming sector and has now built up Hawke’s Bay’s largest stock of new and used tractor tyres with over 200 tyres.

“Being from Morrinsville, I knew a lot about tractor tyres.

“We also moved into tyre welding (vulcanizing), which is pretty unique. As you could expect tractors can get punctures in some pretty difficult situations, so to get out to the tractor we bought a 4-wheel drive vehicle that gets us out to jobs that no others can.”

“Punctures can easily occur while driving through strange paddocks at night. I went out to one farm late at night and the harvester was driving through long grass and hit a water trough, puncturing a tyre.

Today one of Greg’s team of eight, many with over a decade experience, are rostered on every hour of the day to keep Hawke’s Bay food producers moving.

The business has grown and to secure its presence in a fast developing commercial business area, Greg bought the property and expanded its operations.

“We were bulging at the seams. We’ve now been able to bring additional services such as our truck tyre changing machine onsite as well as creating new office space. Health and safety is really important in this industry so it made sense to have more services on-site where there’s always a few of us around.

The tyre centre also does wheel alignment which also enhance the lifespan of tyres.

Greg and his team love the variety of what is driven into the tyre centre. “We can have the Masarati and Porsche come in for a new set of tyres to the second-hand teenager’s car through to a heavy duty truck.

“As an independent tyre dealership, we’re not constrained by what we can recommend, although we’re big fans of Coopers as they are one of the only tyre manufacturers that guarantee milage.”

Greg is a founding member of the National Tyre Assistance, a nationwide group of independent tyre businesses. He says the benefits for customers is that if they have tyre problems anywhere in New Zealand a partner member can come to their aid.

Cooper tyres are guaranteed to last between 50,000 – 80,000km depending on size and tread pattern and subject to normal usage in on and off-road situations.

“The regular care and maintenance of your wheel alignment, brakes, suspension and wheels are crucial to the performance and wear of your tyres; for this reason, you should get your tyres every 10,000km.

“Safety is vital when it comes to driving and it pays to talk to experienced tyre specialists, who know how the rubber hits the road.

GREG’S TOP TYRE TIPS

Greg says a little care and maintenance goes a long way in prolonging the life of your tyres and making sure you get the maximum usage out of each set. Here’s his top tips.

  1. Ensure your tyres are properly inflated. Keeping your tyres at the right air pressure will help you avoid fast and uneven treadwear, improper vehicle handling and excessive heat build-up.
  2. Rotate your tyres at the recommended times. Moving your tyres around so that they trade places on your vehicle will ensure that they wear out uniformly.
  3. Drive in a tyre-friendly manner! You may not realize it, but the way you drive can have a lot to do with how long your tyres will last and how well they perform. Overloading, abrupt braking, rapid acceleration andhard cornering are just some things to avoid.

www.havelocknorthtyres.co.nz

Fashion Designer draws huge facebook following

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The marketing power of Facebook has surprised a Hawke’s Bay home-based clothing producer who has acquired 29,437 page followers, and still counting, since first posting an offer of children’s clothing two years ago.

Donna Paterson-Mills and her husband Bryce have since extended Donna’s design of clothing into womenswear and have launched a website, www.oliandgus.co.nz,which has streamlined order taking, payments and despatch – and made their home life less hectic.

“It’s all grown so quickly. Our plan is for the website to handle the retail side of our business so we can get our own lives back again,” says Donna.

To give some perspective of the popularity of the Oli & Gus Facebook page, its number of followers exceeds by five times the Facebook following of a successful womenswear retailer with 41 stores throughout New Zealand.

The website will extend the offering of “meant to be worn” clothes for women under their Hot Mamma label, which offers short runs of each garment style – some selling out completely within hours of a post on Facebook.

“Our Hocus Pocus sweater is a recent example. It sold out in eight hours,” says Donna, who designs all the clothes and chooses the fabric for each garment.

Uppermost in her mind is the lifestyle of busy women, like herself, who want good quality clothes that are comfortable to wear, will still look good after repeated washes and offer an individual flair.

“I’m sure our customers like the idea that there’s not much chance of someone else wearing exactly the same dress at the same place.”

She says there is no deference to fashion magazines or catwalk trends, as evident in the Facebook photos of Donna ‘modelling’ her latest garments without make-up or any pretence at being a fashion model.

They had tried modelling with a professional photographer “but I didn’t look like me,” says Donna.

son Angus, now 6, to take the photos with her cell-phone, usually outside for natural light, and then Donna selects an image for uploading to Facebook with no thought of any photo edit.

On the supply side, the opposite happens because there is nothing casual about how the garments are produced.

An offshore garment supplier has learned to follow Donna’s designs and fabric choices and their ongoing communications have led to a mutual respect, as seen in a recent invitation to join the supply company at a major fabric market event.

Donna says her interest in clothing design began as a young girl playing with cotton reels, pattern boxes and a button box at the foot of her grandmother’s antique sewing table.

Rose was a renowned dressmaker in the Hawke’s Bay – her last project, at the age of 80, being Donna’s wedding dress with Arabic embroidery supplied by Donna – and Donna gradually learned from her grandmother the basic skills and art of making clothes.

“I had the most amazing wardrobe as a child, all beautifully handmade. I fell in love with a terry towelling bikini and remember the smocked frocks and dresses Rose made for me. Eventually I started making my own pieces from fabric pulled out of a remnants bag.”

A Massey University bachelor degree in resource and environmental planning enabled Donna to travel to Asia and the Middle East as a language and art teacher, a venture that ultimately led her back into clothing design.

“In Al Ain (the ‘garden city’ 150 kilometres south of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates) I spent hours in the fabric markets and met with the artisans who created the most beautiful garments.

“I started designing my own clothes again to wear while teaching at a private school in Al Ain. My designs had to keep within the Donna ‘models’ her garment designs PRO around the house for young son Angus Feature or husband Bryce to take the photos that are uploaded to Facebook.

cultural boundaries of the Middle East but I added my own ideas on colour.”

In Australia, which became her home for 18 years, Donna worked at management level in the fashion industry while husband Bryce continued his management role in industrial construction.

Three years ago (2014), the couple returned to the Hawke’s Bay and created their Oli & Gus label on Facebook as a work-at-home project for Donna.

She attributes the popularity of Oli & Gus to garment quality, price and an individual look in the designs shaped by her own attitude and lifestyle that’s “a little quirky, a bit bohemian … definitely not mainstream”.

The retail price of each garment is kept close to a target of $100.

“This is not designer clothing and evening wear, unless you want it to be, and it’s priced at a level where someone can see something they like and order it online without too much concern.”

www.oliandgus.co.nz

Christopher Keys – HB Wine Export

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Gibbston Valley is one of Central Otago’s founding wineries and is acknowledged globally as a top producer of Pinot Noir. It has the largest wine cave and busiest cellar door in the country, and its chief winemaker is Hastings Boys’ High School old boy Christopher Keys.

Christopher has been at Gibbston Valley since 2006, having moved to the south from Hawke’s Bay where he made wine at Brookfields Vineyards and Sileni Estates.

Christopher’s love of the grape was born in the Dunedin wine shop where he worked while studying English and Russian at Otago University. In 1997, he completed a postgraduate diploma in Oenology at Lincoln and returned home to Hawke’s Bay to work at Brookfields Vineyards under the tutelage of Peter Robertson.

“I moved back to Hawke’s Bay in 1998, the vintage of the century. It was a great vintage to cut my teeth on and an honour to work for Peter. Brookfields is a small, quality- focused winery and I worked in all aspects of the business – the cellar door, vineyard, winery, laboratory and the bottling line. It was a comprehensive wine education. Brookfieldshasagreatwinetastingtradition on Thursdays where all come to share wines – all egos are smashed – that taught me a lot about wine and life.”

In 2002, Christopher moved to Sileni Estates in an assistant winemaker role, to have a “totally different Hawke’s Bay wine experience” and to make some of his beloved Pinot Noir.

“Pinot Noir is what love is. It’s complex and dimensional, such a compelling variety and so reflective of where it’s grown. And like love, it teaches you, lifts you but can also

seriously slam you. It can be the best and the worst of winemaking and life. Sileni had some interesting vineyard sites and it was a great opportunity for me to be amongst talent like winemakers Grant Edmonds and Nigel Davies and to be able to make some good Pinot.”

Four years later, Christopher headed south to take up the chief winemaker role at Gibbston Valley. Being in Central Otago, the mecca for New Zealand Pinot Noir, has given him a chance to reflect on the industry and his time in Hawke’s Bay.

“Back in the late 1990s, Te Awa and Trinity Hill were the new players – it was a really vibrant time and there were many start-up wine companies. The region has made huge strides and is producing some world-class wines but to me it has always been a bit disparate. It’s both a strength and a weakness that Hawke’s Bay has so many wine varieties, but each winery was trying to establish themselves and competing with each other.

“What I have really enjoyed in Central Otago is the collaboration. We are promoting the Central Otago brand as well as Gibbston Valley in everything we do. Pinot Noir is the vehicle to do this.”

Christopher says that Central Otago is proof that a collaborative marketing effort and limiting yourselves to playing one game – in this case, high-quality Pinot Noir – is the model for success in the wine business.

“I find it interesting how we all sit in the wine world. The fact that the world knows Central Otago Pinot Noir comes from an understanding of our land combined with cohesive, inventive promotion of our area and wines. I feel that Hawke’s Bay is still so diverse in its wines and message that some of that collective gain is lost at the expense of individual winery success. Syrah is an exceptional variety and, of course, Chardonnay. And some of Hawke’s Bay produces some incredible Bordeaux styles. None of that leads to one variety being linked to the area, which is, in the complex wine world, sometimes an advantage.”

Every two years, the Keys family meets in Hawke’s Bay and wine tasting is on the itinerary. While it might seem like a busman’s holiday to some, Christopher says they love trekking around wineries but finding most closed on one of the most lucrative days of the year perplexed him.

“I couldn’t believe that on Boxing Day only two winery cellar doors we came across were open in Hawke’s Bay – Elephant Hill and Craggy Range. On one of the busiest days of the year, Hawke’s Bay was closed.”

Central Otago is reliant on international and domestic visitors equally and Gibbston Valley sells 85 percent of its wine through the cellar door and local sales.

“Getting the experience right for a diverse visitor group is sometimes challenging, but we offer a range of tastings to suit and also provide Mandarin translators. As a winemaker, I’m sometimes involved and I can be useful for certain types of customers.

“I love telling the story of Central Otago and of our wine.”

 

Palmer not about to tread water

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James Palmer was appointed the new chief executive for the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council in June. He has taken on the challenging role at an organisation that has been under the public spotlight for a range of issues such as the ongoing Ruataniwha Water Storage Project, the water contamination crisis that struck Havelock North and the current consenting process for Water Bottling.

The Profit put James under the spotlight in this Q& A.

What’s your career background

After studying politics at university my first permanent job was as an electorate agent for a member of Parliament in Wellington. I then worked for 7 years in the Beehive as an advisor to government ministers, mostly in areas of economic and industry development, energy and environment policy. I spent the next 4 years as the director of strategy at the ministries of Agriculture and Forestry and Primary Industries, followed by 3 years as Deputy Secretary Sector Strategy at the Ministry for the Environment, overseeing the government’s Natural Resources Sector and its part in the Business Growth Agenda. I also led policy in areas such as national environmental monitoring, hazardous substances and new organisms, international environment agreements and marine management. At the beginning of 2016 I started at the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council as Group Manager Strategic Development, overseeing regional planning and economic development.

In the mid-2000s I took a break from government and had a couple of years in private consulting, along with governance roles at the Eastern and Central Community and HB Power Consumers’ trusts. As a consultant I project managed the feasibility and consenting of the Esk hydro power scheme with local developers Chris Pask and Hugh Lattey. I was also fortunate to do an internship in the British Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in London during this period. In the end I’ve chosen a public sector career because I enjoy the continually changing and complex problem solving. Putting my energy into making the world a better place gives me a sense of purpose. It’s intellectually demanding work, and everyone has an opinion on what you are doing and what you are not, but it’s never boring and it’s satisfying. I feel incredibly fortunate to do this kind of work.

What have you learnt from the Hastings water crisis? (not what council has learnt – but what’s been your key takes from it)

The crisis was particularly stressful due to the scale of the suffering and disruption, and the frustration of not being able to readily pinpoint what had happened and why. The lack of trust between HBRC and HDC was uncomfortable and added a lot to the stress for the council staff involved. I learned about the risks of making hasty judgements when under pressure, and how easily you can be misunderstood when other people don’t have all the information and context you do. I also learned that ratepayers prefer their money not to be spent on councils prosecuting each other, even when one is in breach of their resource consents. Ratepayers understandably just want the problems fixed. The whole experience, coupled with the tragic death of one of our staff, Michael Taylor, on the job earlier this year, has prompted me to strengthen our focus on risk management and pay more attention to low probability, high consequence risks.

Will there ever be a water storage system in CHB?

I think it is likely. The economics of water storage is a function of the value of reliable water for primary production, as well as the value of water for environmental enhancement. I think the value of both will grow in the future so the business case is only likely to get stronger. If water storage can be an enabler of land use change to production systems with lower nutrient and soil loss then the inevitable increase in regulation of farming generally will also make the case stronger. The current work we are doing relooking at the environmental aspects of the Ruataniwha scheme is all about this. The key question is whether landowners on the Ruataniwha Plains can make the economics of alternative land uses under irrigation work.

What are your top priorities in the first year as CE?

In general terms my overarching priority is to reset public trust and confidence in the Regional Council and clearly demonstrate the Council’s value proposition to its ratepayers. While this will take time, it is urgent because it enables everything else we do. Getting a new RMA plan completed for water management in the Heretaunga zone and bringing decision-making on the Ruataniwha scheme to a conclusion is also at the top of the list for the next year, as well as completion of the Coastal Hazard Strategy with Napier and Hastings councils. Napier Port needs significant additional capital for a new wharf and so working through a new financial strategy for the Council is also an immediate focus, and it underpins our 2018-2028 Long Term Plan, which we will be developing over the next twelve months. This plan charts the future course of the Regional Council and is my primary vehicle for taking the Council forward.

Will you make any dramatic changes to how the organisation operates?

The Regional Council has a fairly strong innovation culture and so continuous improvement is already the norm. I am looking to accelerate this in some areas but I’m generally looking at more evolution than revolution. The work we do with farmers and growers will have to scale up substantially and we need to do this efficiently and effectively alongside industry service providers. The community is demanding stronger environmental protection so we will be more active in compliance and enforcement, while also looking at new incentives for natural resource-based businesses to change their practices. I also want the Council to start evaluating its performance based on the outcomes it achieves, rather than just measuring its outputs.

Environmental sustainability seems to be your gig – why have you had such an interest in this area?

My great grandparents all came to New Zealand to start new lives and did so off the back of the land clearance and establishment of farming that occurred in the 1800s. I didn’t realise it at the time, but I’m very conscious now that the quality of life I enjoyed as a young kiwi, my education and upbringing here in HB, was essentially off the exploitation of the region’s natural capital and the blood, sweat and tears of settlers breaking it in. In my early 20s I read Geoff Park’s book Nga Uruora: An ecological history of New Zealand, and learned of the rapid transformation of our landscapes, with untold devastation of indigenous flora and fauna. It had a big impact on me because we weren’t really taught about it at school. As someone who enjoys the outdoors I now realise how much we have lost and the legacy we are left with. Our declining biodiversity and water quality, and globally significant rates of soil loss, are symptoms of this. I love our region and our country, and what we produce, and I want us to lead the world in doing it sustainably with the market premiums and demand that can go with that. I think NZ is better positioned than any country on the planet to be truly sustainable but if we can’t do it then there’s not much hope for the rest of the world.

HBRC has many stakeholders – how will you aim to keep them informed and happy?

I intend getting out of the office at every opportunity to meet with businesses and community groups to hear their perspectives. We will continue to increase our use of social media and online video to foster discussion on issues, and get ideas and feedback from the community. I also want to make our expenditure and our functions more transparent and easier to understand, so ratepayers know what they are buying and can track how much progress we are making on their behalf.

HBRC has a new CE and a new chair in Rex Graham – what sort of relationship will you aim to form?

I’m aiming for a relationship based on regular, free and frank communication and mutual respect. We don’t need to agree on everything and it’s important that I can give advice even when it isn’t what the chair wants to hear, so an open and respectful relationship is important.

What’s your view on consents for water bottling?

Given that the overwhelming majority of rain that falls in HB flows out to sea I don’t have a problem with some water bottling as long as we don’t have a higher value uses for the water and there are no adverse environmental effects. However, I do think all water users should contribute more to the costs of managing water and I’d like to see regional councils given the power to charge more for water that is taken for commercial benefit. I do think people underestimate how hard it is to make a commercial success from water bottling, the easy part is pulling it out of the ground and putting it into bottles. There’s been a bit of gold rush for bottling consents around NZ but time will tell how many of these will become commercially viable.

What do you do in your spare time?

My wife and I have a 3 hectare block with a fair bit of garden so this often takes up a good chunk of the weekend. In summer I try to swim most days, I cycle the HB trails regularly and I try to get a couple of tramps in each year. I also hack a golf ball around occasionally, but too infrequently for any consistent form, and now and again I throw a surf cast out without much success.

If there’s one thing you could wave a magic wand over to it would be resolved – what would it be?

I tend to think if human beings could fundamentally understand their dependence on, and connectedness with, everything and everyone around them then we would make better choices and most of our issues would probably be resolved.

 

Unlikely partnership has a unique rhythm

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What started out as a hip-hop collaboration between American Zach Stark and local boy Ratima Hauraki has become so much more, with potential business opportunities that won’t take a rocket to show people where Wairoa is on a map.

The two met when Ratima, whose life had led him in many directions, found his way home to Wairoa. The one constant for him was his music so when he returned, his whanau told him about a recording studio that had opened up at the town’s Gaiety Theatre. “I said, ‘they would have nowhere to put it in the Gaiety Theatre, there are no rooms for it’. But they were adamant there was one in town,” he says.

So, Ratima tracked down Zach and what he found was not so much a ’studio’ as a pakeha with a laptop and a microphone in a room.

“We bumped heads and a week later we had laid down a song. We have been going for about a year now,” Ratima says.

Despite having quite a different background to Ratima, Zach’s life has also led him in many directions. The freelance sound engineer has lived and worked all over the world, but it was an old cinema – the Gaiety Theatre – that brought him to Wairoa.

Zach designed a 9.3 surround sound system for the theatre, the only one of its kind in New Zealand, and seeing that the establishment needed a manager and as his partner loved the area, they decided to stick around.

And the collaboration that launched 5,000 likes and promising business ventures the music video Know Me Now by Rugged and Wylde, also known as Ratima and Zach, if nothing else, it showed both of them just how much can be accomplished with relatively little.

Once set up in his ’studio’, Zach says that with a little self-learning from a few videos and what plug-ins and add-ons are now available online, “you can sound pretty top- notch. The big studios get you the last 10 percent but we get 90 percent of the way without much difficulty, if you have the time and patience to learn and really do the hard work.”

It was then he realised that this could be bigger than one or two songs from Rugged and Wylde.

“Our bigger goal is to work as a region first to get people here on board,” he said. He used the example of Hollywood, how people don’t go there for Sony or Universal of MGM. “You go there because it is Hollywood and Los Angeles and movies. The whole region is promoted so it doesn’t rise and fall on one group.”

This is their view for the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti region, and not just for hip-hop but for all genres of music.

“I would rather see the industry get bigger collaboratively, otherwise everybody walls off and nobody gets anywhere; there are so many talented people here and that shouldn’t happen,” Zach says.

And so, with a little help from Zach’s family, the young entrepreneur went and bought the former Clyde Hotel, located along the town’s main road.

He hopes to lure the big stars down to Wairoa with more than just his laptop, so they can record without the distractions big city life can bring. The family are busy restoring the old building. Having already fitted out an apartment, they are now working on recording studios, not only to draw the big names in but so they can contribute to their region-wide vision.

“Ratima is going to try and start recording people if I am busy at the theatre,” says Zach.

“We are trying to find funds now that will pay Ratima a wage and then we will give a heavily reduced rate for people who want to get started. We are happy to record people and teach them at the same time so they can take the skills with them.”

Ratima and Zach’s vision is one that is long term. Through a planned multimedia hub, the duo plan to work on more than just music. This has thrown up other opportunities that – “depending on what the market dictates” – comprise a five-year plan.

One proposed opportunity that sounds promising is working with the world’s movie industry. Zach explains that a lot of movies run out of funds during their post-production phase and he sees this as a prime opportunity where students can step into small suites in Wairoa and with their editing skills cost-effectively fix this problem.

It is something he did when he worked in Hong Kong and it worked quite well.

“The movie gets finished and the students walk away with a real film credit and potentially get a piece of the pie if it ever goes to market, a small royalty perhaps.”

He says what makes his and Ratima’s vision appealing is that there are very little overheads, whether it is in recording a song or editing a movie.

“These are industries where we don’t have to pollute rivers, we don’t have to destroy mountain sides and we don’t need a lot of space,” he says.

“There are such talented people here who just don’t have the connections, or maybe even the confidence, which is what we want to try and help with.”

To watch Rugged and Wylde’s music videos 111 and Low Life, go to YouTube and type in Rugged and Wylde.