We check in with the beer boss who gave up booze, the woman taking on the supermarkets, and the guy who built an adults-only obstacle course to ask: how’s it all going?
This is an excerpt from our weekly business newsletter Stocktake.
Hopefully you’re getting ready to log off and enjoy a great Christmas break. After this year, we’ve all earned it. Instead of usual transmission, this week I’m doing something a little different and getting in touch with some of my favourite people I’ve met this year. I’ll recap their stories, then update them, to see how things have progressed since we last spoke. Hopefully you’ll find something you missed, or a few things worth bookmarking to read over the holidays. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, and whoever you’re with, I hope you have a Meri Kirihimete. See you back here in 2023.
-Chris Schulz, business editor
The beer boss who gave up alcohol says his 0% range has gone ‘kaboom’
Grant Cauntner loved beer. For 25 years, it was his job, his hobby, his life. As global director of craft beers for Heineken, he lived a high-flying lifestyle, and nights spent drinking his own product was something that happened frequently. “We would enjoy everything that the craft industry has to offer,” he told me when we spoke in July. “I was the craft guy going to South Africa, Mexico, Sweden … France, the UK, Brazil.”
Beer is still his life, but with a twist. Cauntner’s only tipple these days is his own beer. State of Play is his 0% brand that he launched earlier this year. Caunter’s entered a packed market, with many local craft brewers finding their 0% offerings are among their top sellers. He’s doing all this on his own while juggling a career in consultancy.
But State of Play has taken off in a massive way. Since we last spoke, Cauntner’s appeared on Seven Sharp and launched a second beer called Nectaron, a hoppier take on his original IPA that he describes it as a “fruit bowl explosion”. He’s constantly having to keep making more of the stuff because demand keeps increasing. “It’s just gone, ‘Kaboom’,” says Caunter. “We’re probably growing 50% a month.”
What he’s finding really interesting about this trend is the change in who is drinking his product. Zero-alcohol beers are no longer just for sober drivers or those who’ve sworn off alcohol altogether – the range is now so good that beer fans are also including them in a session alongside regular beers. “People go, ‘I’m going to have one between this and this one,’ or, ‘I’ll finish my night on zeros,’” says Cauntner. “They fit really nicely into their existing drinking repertoire.”
Sarah Balle is still fighting NZ’s supermarket duopoly
I headed out to Wiri in April to visit Supie, the online grocer attempting to take down the country’s supermarket duopoly. There, founder Sarah Balle told me she was spending every waking moment at work, packing orders, reupping supplies, keeping on top of trends, and fronting media interviews, all in the service of making her business fly. “Often I go for a nap in the car,” she said. “I’ve gotten real used to sleeping in the car.”
Balle’s seen solid growth since then. Supie’s added another 10,000 members (who pay a $100 fee and get free delivery, special deals and freebies) since we last spoke, taking the total to 30,000. Her product range has also increased, up to 7,000 from more than 350 suppliers. “We now offer a price promise so that customers can trust us that our pricing is competitive with the major supermarkets,” she says.
Thankfully, this growth means Balle’s no longer sleeping at work. “We’ve grown our team to 50, which means there’s no longer space in our office for me to sleep on the floor,” she tells me. “I continue to be humbled by our loyal customer base and continue to put my heart and soul into ensuring that all Kiwis have access to healthy, affordable food. The more Kiwis that shop with Supie, the more we’ll be able to overcome the power of the supermarket duopoly.”
Energy drinks are still bougie – but one is leading the charge
Back in June, as Covid kept spreading and winter kept wintering, we were all looking for cures for our ills. Enter wellness tonics, optimised health drinks promising all sorts of health improvements. Cold brew coffee was infused with mushrooms, and sparkling tonics promised to improve your skin, help you sleep, even fast-track your libido. “You’ve got caffeine bringing you up, but L-theanine taking the edge off … lion’s mane for your brain, chaga for your body,” one producer told me at the time.
The standout drink then, and now, seems to be Ārepa, the nootropic drink made using homegrown blackcurrants, which among other things promises the possibility of improved brain function. It can be found in supermarkets across Aotearoa and Australia, the All Blacks down it at half time, and, it should be noted, Ārepa is often seen on desks around The Spinoff offices (their head office is in Kingsland, right underneath ours).
I asked founder Angus Brown how things have gone since we last talked, and he confirmed Ārepa has grown to 22 staff, with four in Australia, is ranked the number one health drink in New Zealand supermarkets and online sales are continuing to trend upwards, despite the economic downturn. That’s not all: Ārepa has closed on a pre-series A capital raise of $3 million. “We’re stoked to have some impressive brains join this round, including Kiwi NBA star Steven Adams, Zespri CEO Dan Mathieson and Comvita founder Alan Bouge,” he says.
That’s not all: Brown’s also committed to more scientific studies on exactly what Ārepa can do. He’s particularly buzzed about one that recently emerged out of Australia. “Scientists at the University of Wollongong found that our neuroberry blackcurrants have the highest levels of anthocyanins out of all purple foods in New Zealand and Australia,” he says. “They believe they may help delay neurological decline. It would be a breakthrough for Ārepa if found to be true.”
The suburb that’s being razed and rebuilt is still being rebuilt
The sound of diggers, builders and concrete mixers has become normalised in the West Auckland suburb of Te Atatū Peninsula. That’s because intensive housing has arrived in the previously spacious suburb en masse. Thanks to West Auckland’s expanded unitary plan, developers arrived several years ago to turn quarter-acre sections into multi-dwelling sites full of townhouses and apartments. They’re so packed in there often isn’t room for car parks (“On street parking” has been advertised, more than once, in real estate ads, as if it’s a good thing).
I wrote about this in March and can update this story myself since I call Te Atatū Peninsula home. Because financing for many of these developments was locked in during the Covid-fuelled property boom, the constant construction hasn’t stopped, and hammers and drills remain a constant soundtrack to daily life. Just around the corner from where I live is a massive development taking over two sections that will, once finished, offer 20 properties with room for more than 60 people.
The big change, though, is that demand for townhouses in Te Atatū is way down. As the property market continues to deflate, brand new townhouses are being offered for discounted prices (compared to what they would have fetched 12 months ago, at least) and Trade Me, at the time of writing, has 63 listed for sale. They’re still building them, but they just don’t seem to be selling. Which must make for a pretty bleak workplace environment for those still on the tools.
The woman who brings businesses back from the brink says the future is grim
I met Haylee Wrenn in August at a time when the economy was taking a turn. Things seemed bleak, and Wrenn, who helps small businesses cut costs, pull back and re-organise things, or close up shop, if required, agreed that they were. “My advice is to batten down the hatches, really think about where you’re spending your money, and protect your cash flow,” she told me.
Unfortunately, Wrenn doesn’t have high hopes things are going to get any easier in 2023. “Personally, I think the next 12 months is going to be the hardest we have had for a while,” she says. “Employees are hunting the dollars which they can do and why would you not? Employers are unable to compete without raising prices and passing the cost on to the consumer. They will not make any sales and their businesses will die.”
She has a few tips for businesses trying to weather this storm. “Business owners can reduce the hours they are open to manage with fewer employees, especially in hospo.” For those that are in strife, reach out as soon as possible to ask for help. “Get in front of the situation and make calculated decisions before it is too late. IRD are no longer the nice guys and are becoming brutal,” she says. “I personally have four clients who will sell up next year as business is getting too hard to continue.”
An 85-year-old has enjoyed the adults-only inflatable obstacle course
Corey Ealand was at a kids’ birthday watching his son play on a bouncy castle when jealousy consumed him. Why couldn’t he have a go? During Covid-enforced lockdowns he decided to do something about it, devising the biggest, hardest, most dasstardly obstacle course he possibly could, then found someone who’d build it for him. The result is Megaland, and after a visit on a rainy day in September, The Spinoff can confirm it is mega-awesome.
Asked how it’s been going, Ealand says the response has passed his expectations. “We had an 85-year-old lady come and say it’s the best thing she’s ever done,” he says. “People absolutely love it and the smiles confirm that. People fly up from all over New Zealand, from Christchurch, Nelson, Napier, or drive from the Mount and Kaitaia.” For anyone keen to give Megaland a go, it’s set up at Mt Smart Stadium in the lead-up to Christmas (dates and tickets are available here).
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