Good post from Hefevice about the closure of Macs Shed 22 Wellington waterfront site, which I gather is the original brewery.
I always feel a little vexed when I read about these closures. Beer is a business afterall. No brewer doing it commercially – not even the smallest, craftiest microbrewer – is doing it for free. While a focus on quality (and by quality I mean more flavoursome and interesting beers, not cookie cutter consistency) may assume a higher focus for these brewers, they still want to pay their bills, feed their family and make the odd mortgage payment, just the same as the big corporates
Corporate brewers – or any corporation – always fall back on their duty to maximise the return on their shareholders investment, which is fair enough. These obligations mean that they aren’t just looking at generating a sustainable business, but to constantly increase profits. Again, fair enough - although as I get older I seem to be developing a bit more of a concern about the long-term sustainability of this sort of rapaciousness. This is particularly so when you see the reasoning given by Lion (or should that be Kirin these days?) for the decision…
The Wellington Brewery is a higher-cost facility relative to our other breweries but up until now we considered this a component of our investment in building the Mac’s brand and its reputation for brewing innovation.
However the brand has developed to a point where consumer adoration for Mac’s no longer depends on the Wellington Brewery underpinning the brand’s reputation for brewing innovation. The maturity of the Mac’s brand and the introduction of the Mac’s Brewbars throughout the country have contributed to this change in consumer attitude, to the extent that we can now no longer justify the expense of operating the Wellington Brewery.
Is it just me, or is this really saying that:
- while the brewery is making a profit, it’s not making enough of a profit because making smaller batches is too expensive
- despite this we kept the facility until now because there was a non-monetary value to the brewery, namely to convince our customers the Mac’s is all about quality beer
- Now, enough people – people who don’t really think about what they drink and are swayed by a label and clever marketing – think that we rock and will think that even if we close the brewery that made this possible, even though it is still making us money.
Am I wrong in reading it that way?
Of course, there is the environmental line being trotted out as well -
Only 20 per cent of the beer produced on site is enjoyed by Wellington drinkers. The rest is shipped off around the country via Christchurch which generates huge freight and distribution costs.
"It makes good commercial sense to move the brewery to Christchurch where we have the flexibility to meet current and future demand. Then there's the environmental footprint, which we're keen to address," Ms Read said.
Yep, because New Zealand is such a huge country, trucking beer around it has a massive environmental downside…but we’re still willing to export to Australia and have the beer trucked around that huge mofo of a country. Wait, I just realised – that will be the excuse for brewing Mac’s under licence in Australia once the brand has developed to a point where consumer adoration for Mac’s no longer depends on a New Zealand-based brewery underpinning the brand’s reputation for brewing innovation. The maturity of the Mac’s brand and the introduction of the Mac’s Brewbars throughout the Australia have contributed to this change in consumer attitude, to the extent that we can now no longer justify the expense of brewing beers for export in New Zealand.
As usual, I am diverting…what I actually wanted to post about – hence the title – was this…
We will maintain a dedicated Mac’s brewer who will still brew the craft beers with the same passion and hand-crafted approach as now…
There are a couple of words that are guaranteed to appear in any brewery media release, whether a 6 hectolitre micro or 100 hectolitre behemoth and “hand-crafted” is one of them. What does that mean in brewing? Especially in a 40 hectolitre plant…I’m pretty sure the brewers aren’t carrying in bags of malt and hops, nor measuring the water in measuring cups. One of the ways that the other breweries would be five times less expensive than the Macs brewery would be automation. Isn’t automation the opposite of hand-crafted?
Other marketing speak on my hate list are:
- Premium (how can Corona be a ‘premium’ beer except that being a crap beer from an exotic foreign country we have convinced the punters to shell out $50 for it)
- Super or ultra premium (how can Boags Pure – that’s repackaged Steinlager Pure for my kiwi readers - be super premium when it has less flavour that regular beer? Oh, it’s in a nicer bottle)
- finest quality ingredients (our cane sugar and tetra hops are the finest quality)
- innovation…we put it in a nicer bottle, or a new label that does a magic trick or put fruit cordial in it like people have been doing for years
Readers, what are your pet hates?