Today, the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) operates two hotels, four motels, 14 taverns and bars, six major liquor outlets, eight convenience bottle stores and a conference and catering business. <\/p>\n
It also operates a motel in Dunedin and one in Christchurch and provides wholesale alcohol to supermarkets across Otago and Southland.<\/p>\n
Established in 1944 following a referendum, the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) holds exclusive rights under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act to operate standalone off-licences in its district. <\/p>\n
The ILT developed and owns The Langlands Hotel, which opened in 2022. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Unlike most former trust areas, Invercargill has not voted to move to open competition.<\/p>\n
Compared with the other three remaining trust monopoly areas – Mataura with about 1,600 people and the much larger West Auckland ward trusts Wait\u0101kere and Portage (about 178,000 residents) which are structurally different from a stand-alone city – Invercargill stands out as a mid-sized city of about 55,600 people where a statutory licensing trust still controls core liquor outlets.<\/p>\n
Eighty years on from its inception, ILT remains a significant commercial operator. <\/p>\n
According to its 2025 annual report, the ILT Group operates 23 hospitality businesses, including hotels, motels, taverns, bottle stores and conference facilities. <\/p>\n
For the year ended March 31, 2025, the group reported gross profit of $48.02 million and a surplus after tax of $10.91m. <\/p>\n
After donations to the community, the net surplus stood at $2.038m. Total assets were reported at $89.61m, with equity of $66.124m and term debt of $8.01m.<\/p>\n
During the same period, the Trust distributed $8.872m back into the community. <\/p>\n
The ILT is a major sponsor of Stadium Southland, and holds naming rights to the venue. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
Of that, $3.485m was allocated through ILT grants and $5.386m was distributed via the ILT Foundation\u2019s gaming proceeds. <\/p>\n
The foundation operates 153 gaming machines and states it has awarded nearly $105m over the past 19 years. <\/p>\n
ILT also holds a 28.3% share in DB South Island Brewery Limited.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Chris Ramsay said ILT was both a commercial operator and a community contributor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst a major player in town, there are already 109 other non-ILT venues,\u201d he said, noting ILT holds 22 of the 131 liquor licences issued by the Invercargill District Licensing Committee,” he said.<\/p>\n
Licensing decisions in Invercargill are made by the District Licensing Committee (DLC), which applies the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. <\/p>\n
Section 350 of that Act establishes the exclusive rights of the licensing trust to operate standalone off-licences within its district.<\/p>\n
DLC annual reports over the past decade show that Section 350 still applies within Invercargill – and new standalone off-licence approvals have been limited. <\/p>\n
In the 2019\u201320 reporting period, one off-licence application was declined after being found to breach Sections 32 and 350 of the Act, following a hearing.<\/p>\n
The Invercargill Licensing Trust lodged a formal objection to the application by Gadoochi Brewing Ltd at 30-32 Dee St, with the Licensing Inspector raising concerns relating to Sections 32 and 350 of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act.<\/p>\n
Police did not oppose the application, while the Medical Officer of Health initially opposed but later withdrew that opposition.<\/p>\n
In its written decision, the Committee found the premises fell within the Trust\u2019s monopoly boundary and that the monopoly provisions applied because the applicant intended to sell other brewers\u2019 products.<\/p>\n
The application was dismissed.<\/p>\n
Licensing decisions in Invercargill are made by the District Licensing Committee (DLC), which applies the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n
Over the same period, overall licence application numbers have declined. <\/p>\n
Applications received by the DLC fell from 349 in 2020\u201321 to 244 in 2023\u201324. <\/p>\n
In recent years, the majority of applications have related to renewals, transfers or variations rather than new entrants.<\/p>\n
Independent operators interviewed for this story had differing views on how the trust model operates in practice.<\/p>\n
Athena Tane, co-owner of The Auction House, said taking over the venue in 2022 was a straightforward process. <\/p>\n
She said the hospitality market was competitive and believed there was room for more independent operators.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think so, I think everyone likes to support locals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Tane said securing premises and licensing had not presented difficulties in her case, as she and her sister took over an existing operation.<\/p>\n
Nicola McGilvray, co-owner of Gadoochi Brewing and Tuatara Caf\u00e9, said the licensing framework had \u201cvery, very directly\u201d affected her business.<\/p>\n
Her brewery recently secured approval to operate an off-licence following a hearing before the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA) in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe fought that through ARLA and we won,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McGilvray said an earlier application three years ago had been declined and that the recent process had required significant time and expense. <\/p>\n
She said the initial interpretation relied on the monopoly provisions in the Act.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a battle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McGilvray described ILT as \u201cvery ingrained in every aspect of the community\u201d and said new entrants would find it \u201cquite hard to establish a new licence\u201d. <\/p>\n
She recommended purchasing an existing licensed premises rather than applying for a new standalone licence.<\/p>\n
Ramsay rejected suggestions that ILT interferes in licensing decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not issue liquor licences, nor do we stand in the way of competition,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Another independent hospitality operator, David Hicks, owner of Rad Dad, said ILT had no direct impact on his restaurant model.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m classified as a restaurant\u2026 applying for a licence doesn\u2019t come into anything that the ILT hold a monopoly over.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the bigger hurdle was moving from a food truck model into a leased premises, citing rent levels and council food compliance requirements as more significant barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a lot of premises in town at the right price for people starting out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the trust structure may even have indirectly benefited his business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the kind of dearth of other options in town\u2026 it\u2019s given me a boost in the \u2018this is new and different\u2019 sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Long-time hospitality operator Mana Davis said tensions between independent operators and the licensing structure dated back decades.<\/p>\n
Davis began operating in Invercargill in the 1980s and later secured a licence for his restaurant in the late 1980s and 1990s. <\/p>\n
He said expanding his business required court action in order to open to trade, and there were disputes over the layout and visibility of bar areas within his premises.<\/p>\n
Davis said he believed independent operators were treated more strictly than trust-run venues during that period, particularly around whether establishments were deemed food-led or alcohol-led.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey really did focus on me,\u201d he alleged.<\/p>\n
Davis said he had sought to provide an alternative to what he described as a more traditional tavern model.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged ILT\u2019s community contributions but said the dominance of the model had historically constrained experimentation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s held our town,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nationally, licensing trusts are not unique, but full monopoly districts are now uncommon. <\/p>\n
The NZ Community Licensing Trust Association represents 16 licensing and community trusts governed by the Act. <\/p>\n
Collectively, those trusts employ more than 1,600 staff and distribute more than $30 million annually in profits or gaming grant distributions to local communities. <\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a multimedia journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, the Invercargill Licensing Trust (ILT) operates two hotels, four motels, 14 taverns and bars, six major liquor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3384,20784,95,30084,68881,138,2944,128812,17551,17073,3025,111,139,69,1118,10112,7227,223,9438,163126,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-295715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-aisle","9":"tag-alcohol","10":"tag-and","11":"tag-beer","12":"tag-bread","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-inside","15":"tag-invercargills","16":"tag-licensing","17":"tag-monopoly","18":"tag-most","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-of","23":"tag-power","24":"tag-supermarkets","25":"tag-the","26":"tag-trust","27":"tag-ubiquitous","28":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295715","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=295715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}