Mark Dillon of Aroha Drinks, based in Christchurch, on its challenges caused by the Christchurch earthquake of February 2011. Our most immediate challenge was that the brewery which does our bottling, Harrington's Breweries in Ferrymead, lost power for two weeks due to the earthquake.
Their factory near the AMI stadium was one of the hardest hit areas and the factory didn't have a generator. The fruit drinks we had
in tanks were bottled but this ended up having to be dumped.
We also store our fruit with a cool store company in Prebbleton. During the earthquake our 200 kilo drums toppled down on other products piled up on pallets but the frozen stock remained intact.
Probably the biggest impact on the business was the disappearance overnight of around 20 cafes, in the core of the Christchurch's CBD. It was the majority of our local market, one of our most important ones in a way. Some of these cafes have now been re-established in other parts of Christchurch, others have reinvented themselves, and some have jumped ship altogether. We have been fortunate to be a fast growth company and have been taking on new customers around the country.
