{"id":554276,"date":"2026-08-01T06:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554276\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T06:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T06:31:12","slug":"newsmakers-the-man-behind-the-pie-of-kiwi-childhoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/554276\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsmakers: The man behind the pie of Kiwi childhoods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgie Pie was the blueprint for New Zealand fast food in the ’80s and ’90s, offering a Kiwi touch in an industry dominated by the likes of McDonalds and KFC.<\/p>\n

While Kiwis had been eating meat pies<\/a> for generations, the specific combination of mince and cheese was not sold by any major commercial brand until Georgie Pie. <\/p>\n

Created under Progressive Enterprises, it offered a Kiwi alternative to American chains like McDonald’s, who had released their popular quarter pounder with cheese and cheeseburgers.<\/p>\n

Manager Brian Popham was tasked with creating the brand that elevated the classic pie to a new level – and exceeded everybody’s expectations in doing so.<\/p>\n

He told 1News that the Georgie Pie name was born during a trip to the US, where he took inspiration from another pie manufacturer.<\/p>\n

“I’d gone up to Fort Wayne in Indiana to look at some pie making plant. And they pointed me to a pie manufacturer in Georgia, and this company was making large fruit pies. And their name was Georgia Pie,” Popham revealed.<\/p>\n

\"Creator<\/p>\n

Creator of the mince and cheese pie Brian Popham (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“So we stole it. and instead of Georgia pie we called it Georgie Pie.”<\/p>\n

Popham was responsible for the invention of the staple mince and cheese pie, an innovation that took the NZ food scene by storm.<\/p>\n

“We developed a mince and cheese pie, which had natural cheese flavour in the filling, but also had a cheese slice on top inside the pastry,” Popham explained.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The specific combination of mince and cheese was not sold by any major commercial brand until Georgie Pie. <\/p>\n

“And I know many people would say they had a mince and cheese pie, but there was nothing like that. We were the first to develop a pie like that.”<\/p>\n

Mince and cheese pies took off, and soon enough Georgie Pie was recording sales like never before.<\/p>\n

The Georgie Pie inventor said that in 1994 – when the population was around 3.65 million – the company was selling a million pies a week. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“In 1994 we were selling a million pies a week,” Popham said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the success did not last, and as global giants grew, the Kiwi pie business shrunk. <\/p>\n

Eventually, 17 of the 32 Georgie Pie branches were sold to McDonalds, with the remaining outlets left to close in the following years.<\/p>\n

\"Georgie<\/p>\n

Georgie Pie was still remembered fondly by many Kiwis. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Despite the unlucky ending, Georgie Pie was still remembered fondly by many Kiwis, with Popham reflecting on the good times as if they were yesterday.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t just the pie. It was the physical environment. It was the marketing. It was the birthday parties. It was the kids’ club. <\/p>\n

“It showed that we were formidable competitors in the New Zealand market. We weren’t just fly-by-nighters. <\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, it had to come to an end.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Georgie Pie was the blueprint for New Zealand fast food in the ’80s and ’90s, offering a Kiwi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,144,111,35208,139,69],"class_list":["post-554276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-food-drink","tag-new-zealand","tag-newsmakers","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554276","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=554276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}