Snapshots: Four more years

George Gregan, left, with Moa Brewing chief Geoff Ross and the brew Gregan inspired, Four More Years.

Twelve years is a long time to have held a grudge but for beer company Moa the words George Gregan used to taunt the All Blacks after their 2003 loss to Australia were enough to warrant a brew or two.

Since the All Blacks won the world cup in 2011, Moa has been brewing a batch of celebratory beer - with a bottle set aside especially for Gregan.

The brew, which consists of just 444 bottles, will retail for a premium price of $20 per bottle and packs a punch at 12 per cent alcohol volume. Moa chief executive Geoff Ross says it was lucky the beer was held in a barrel not bottled earlier otherwise the chances of it still being around would have been minimal.

Here's hoping New Zealanders will be drinking to the All Blacks' success against the Australians, rather than hearing those haunting words again - four more years boys.

Ross, who has always had an eye for a savvy marketing campaign, will be hoping an All Blacks golden run is good news for beer sales.

Moa shares have had a good few weeks bouncing back from a low of 27c on August 26 to close at 33c on Friday.

Head down

After fending off a takeover bid from Briscoe Group, Kathmandu chief executive Xavier Simmonet is keeping a low profile, avoiding media interviews until after he has some runs on the board. Earlier last week Briscoe managing director Rod Duke confirmed he had not given up on Kathmandu just yet, and is picking the retailer will be posting another negative result tomorrow when they release their full year result. Only time will tell whether Kathmandu's shareholders were right in declining the takeover offer but in the meantime, Simmonet has his head down.

Xavier Simonet.

VW hires legal heavyweights

Following the Volkswagen scandal last week, where it emerged that it had intentionally tampered with almost half a million cars in the US to cheat emission tests, the German carmaker has brought in the big guns. Facing heavy lawsuits from around the globe, the company has enlisted law firm Kirkland & Ellis - the same firm that defended oil giant BP following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. With the extent of the deception not yet known, the company looks to be gearing up for some serious damage control.

Asian leaders

Possibly New Zealand's most loyal immigrant, Doctor Swee Tan stole the show at the New Zealand Asian Leaders Conference last week, discussing his ground-breaking cancer research. The humble scientist also paid tribute to the opportunities that living in New Zealand had given him, and in spite of the increased funding and support he could receive elsewhere in the world, said he was not planning on leaving New Zealand - which he now considers to be home.

Dr Swee Tan.

An uphill climb

The movie preview of Everest this month was likely to have been an emotional one for Peter Hillary, son of the late Sir Edmund who reached the summit of Mt Everest in 1953, the first climber to do so. Hillary said while it was a good film, it had also been difficult to watch. "It's obviously a well-made film but I found it emotionally very trying because this is a group of people who were both close friends of mine and people who I had a lot of respect for and knew a lot about, having a very, very bad time," he said. "It's pretty hard to say you enjoyed watching a very realistic film of a group of your friends dying so I thought it was well done and it's very gripping and there's a lot of realism in it - but it was hard to watch." Everest is based on the events of two 1996 expeditions to the summit which included several New Zealand climbers.

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