Video: “Zeelandt’s no longer producing beer” – owner says decision to close was tough
“Zeelandt’s no longer producing beer” – local brewery owner Christopher Barber says the decision to close the Esk Valley was regrettable.
Twelve months after Cyclone Gabrielle destroyed their home and businesses, Barber and Luciana have called ‘time’ on their craft brewery and restaurant.
Barber says: “It's been a year since the flood. During those 12 months, we tried various ways of keeping the company going. One of those ways was brewing beer in Auckland under contract, and that was good for us to get some beer out on the market. And then we started looking for premise here in Napier with either a restaurant bar or a place to set up a brewery again.”
“It just became a little bit too much in terms of money and time to set up again. I guess we just had to make a decision and die by it and move on. So, regrettably we made the decision that Zeelandt Brewery's no longer producing beer. The challenges were just the margins on producing beer are getting eroded just through economic factors, costs going up. So it just makes it harder to make a dollar.”
Barber told Hawke's Bay App that their restaurant, Cone & Flower, had opened in 2021, so “we'd just been through the whole Resource Management Act, Resource Consent, all the building consents and engineers reports that go with it”.
“We had Cone & and Flower open for just over a year, to have it taken away and then to go through that process again was a little bit deflating, to be honest. To get up and start again and all the costs and time that's involved with it, it just became a bit too much. And I've got a wife and two children and need to care for them as well. So yeah, it was time to move on.”
Barber’s family's owned the land in the valley since about 2008.
“My brother managed the vineyard. So, we grew Chardonnay and Pinot Gris mainly, and then a few other varieties. My brother's still selling the beer at the market and we're still selling beer to some trade customers.
"As a family, we're building a new home. And so we're still in Esk Valley, but we're just a bit higher up in the hills. So we're still part of the valley, we still get to see the valley, which we really love. And we hope to move into our house in spring/summer this year.”
It has been time for the family to regroup and move one, with wife Luciana going make to work for Watties, where she worked before moving on to Zeelandt.
As for him, Barber is working for a company called Better Nature.
“I want to get into the conservation field and Better Nature do a lot of work around possum control, and they also do wilding pines, weed control, and stoat/rabbit control. So, I start with them next month. So yeah, something new, something different.”
The news of the closure has been met with sadness on social media with many people expressing dismay that the popular land mark is closing.
