{"id":182382,"date":"2025-12-13T20:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182382\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T20:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T20:46:09","slug":"bay-of-plenty-breweries-grow-beyond-traditional-hospitality-hubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182382\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay of Plenty breweries grow beyond traditional hospitality hubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Located among warehouses and workshops, with Kaimai views, the business opened on November 1 as one of the first hospitality venues in Tauriko\u2019s industrial zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For Taylor, it was the culmination of decades in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve worked in hospitality my whole life. For 13 years of that, I helped build a brewery in Auckland called Deep Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deep Creek went into liquidation<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

Taylor said choosing a location for a venture was \u201calways hard\u201d but he knew he did not want to go downtown.<\/p>\n

Construction disruption and city centre changes, such as parking and infrastructure,<\/a> are an ongoing struggle for CBD hospitality businesses<\/a>, with owners citing drops in sales and vanishing foot traffic.<\/p>\n

The hospitality report indicated other New Zealand CBDs faced similar issues and that outlets were under pressure from rising operating costs and customers resistant to paying more.<\/p>\n

The report noted a shift towards \u201cneighbourhood venues\u201d, particularly in larger cities, as people choose options closer to home.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, sales in pubs, taverns and bars lifted 1.7% to $2.1 billion in the year ending June 2025 – exceeding the \u201csubdued\u201d 0.3% growth of the $7.8b cafe and restaurant sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cCBDs all over the country have suffered,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy belief is that the brewing industry is becoming more hyper-localised. In fact, I think everyone really does want to support local nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NeckNeck of the Woods Beer\/Food Co. owner Scott Taylor. Photo \/ Kaitlyn Morrell<\/p>\n

In his experience in Auckland, being in \u201cthe suburbs\u201d created spots people would travel to.<\/p>\n

\u201cTauranga City is facing foot traffic problems, and the Mount is obviously cranking at the moment, but I feel like once people discover that we\u2019re here, it will be a destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor said hospitality and brewing were \u201ctough industries\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 But I think there\u2019s still room for that local brewery in New Zealand, and that local taproom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-owner at Alchemy Street Brewing in Parkvale, Kat Hay, said when it came to the craft beer and brewery market, there were \u201ctwo pockets of people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who appreciate craft beer for what it is and don\u2019t mind paying the extra money, and then there are those who don\u2019t appreciate it and are happy to buy the big boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hay said the business was \u201cvery mindful\u201d of how they priced their beers.<\/p>\n

\"AlchemyAlchemy Street Brewing co-owners Ed Bolstad (left), also head brewer, and Kat Hay (right). Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cA six-pack to take away from the brewery of 330 mL cans, we keep under $25 because if you go to a supermarket, you\u2019re not going to buy anything craft that\u2019s more than $25.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said there were definitely still people out there wanting to go and visit craft breweries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult to have a brewery operation in any kind of setting; you kind of need to be in an industrial area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hay said people found them through \u201cword of mouth\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get people who Google \u2018brewery Tauranga\u2019 and come in from around the country to try different beers. I think there\u2019s still an appetite for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hay said the brewery atmosphere was comparable to the US Sitcom Cheers, with an \u201cexperience\u201d he believed was different to visiting a central city bar.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know everybody\u2019s name, we know what beers they drink, we have our regular customers who come in that know about us, and we know about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another brewer, who spoke on the condition they and their business were not named, said being on the outskirts of Tauranga had advantages and disadvantages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a destination, customers generally make a deliberate effort to visit us, but we do miss out on incidental foot traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said the rising costs of goods were becoming a significant factor in brewing operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cCustomers often have a preconceived idea of what certain products should cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve consistently aimed to keep our prices reasonable, which may have helped mitigate the impact of the current economic climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Morrell<\/a> is a multimedia journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has lived in the region for several years and studied journalism at Massey University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Located among warehouses and workshops, with Kaimai views, the business opened on November 1 as one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1561,27245,48708,138,17240,15557,115727,111,139,69,1118,1562,19137],"class_list":["post-182382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bay","tag-beyond","tag-breweries","tag-business","tag-grow","tag-hospitality","tag-hubs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plenty","tag-traditional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}