Mini-breweries seen for N.Z.

Press, 9 March 1982, Page 1

Mini-breweries seen for N.Z.

New Zealand’s reputation as one of the top beer-drinking nations in. the world has attracted a German export firm that specialises in setting up breweries. Mr Wolfgang SchulzGursch, a managing director of Kosmos Export, Ltd, is in Christchurch on a one week “fact-finding tour” of New Zealand.

His company has been involved in setting up minibreweries in Germany which brew and sell beer to a local area only. this type of mini-: brewery that Kosmos is interested in establishing in New Zealand. “New Zealanders drink 120 litres of beer per head a year,” said Mr SchulzGursch. “That is quite a bit of beer: in Germany it is 140 litres per head, which is not much more. Obviously there is a beer-drinking market here.”

He does not see any minibrewery set up by Kosmos as providing real competition for the New Zealand-based breweries that dominate the existing market. “We are looking for a new niche in the market,” he said. ; There are 1400 breweries in Germany, 1000 of them in

Bavaria. “That.-leaves only 400 in the rest of Germany which means, many are small,” said Mr SchulzGursch. "Most are attached to a hotel or restaurant and sell to a regional area only.” Two such breweries, in Munich and Dusseldorf, were great favourites with tourists, who liked to see the beer brewed and then to sample,” he said. Mr Schulz-Gursch hopes to sell to New Zealand business firms the idea of a regional brewery producing beer for sale in a restaurant or hotel in a tourist resort. “They are very popular in Germany,” he said. "People become quite patriotic about their locally brewed beer, which cannot be bought elsewhere.” The beer the. brewery would be producing was dif- ' ferent to the beer most New Zealanders were used to. It would be a typical German beer, using malt, hops, yeast, and water, with no chemical additives. “We are aiming at a high- . quality beef at a decent price,” he said. “It would be a Pilsener-type beer, perhaps something like Steinlager.” The brewery would pro-

duce between 1500 and 3000 gallons of beer a week. Kosmos, which had established breweries in South America and Asia and was at present setting up a minibrewery at Disneyland, was looking at two, perhaps three tourist areas in New Zealand. said Mr Schulz-Gursch. “Part of the attraction is the uniqueness of a beer,” he said. “The breweries should be some distance apart, otherwise the exclusive element is lost." Mr Schulz-Gursch said his company had estimated that the total cost of setting up a mini : brewery in New Zealand would be about $700,000. The Kosmos company does have a contact in New Zealand. A Christchurch lawyer, who prefers not to be named, accompanied Mr SchulzGursch in his meetings with businessmeiTand the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce yesterday. The day was a full one and the , German executive had limited time to sample New Zealand beer. His contact insisted on taking him out to a nearby hotel to try a “plastic jug of Kiwi beer.”