Coromandel business owners hope for a summer resurgence

Liam Blunden, the owner of Salt District Brewing in Whangamatā, is gearing up for summer and hopes to manufacture up to 1,000 litres of beer per month. He recently had a product launch night with another local start-up, Coromandel Chocolate.

A seemingly endless summer of rain that produced catastrophic consequences for the region’s infrastructure tore the heart out of many businesses in the Coromandel, which now are waiting with bated breath to see if recent announcements like the construction of a new bridge on State Highway 25A will once again have the cash registers ringing. Jim Birchall reports.

The Coromandel recorded the dubious honour of the biggest drop in retail spending across the country and has been rocked by successive weather events that left the tourism, retail and hospitality industries in the popular holiday spot decimated.

A visit by Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni to Thames in July trumpeted the Government’s $200,000 boost towards promotional activities to “attract people back” to the beleaguered Coromandel.

Sepuloni, while acknowledging “access issues” had played a significant part in keeping visitors away, said her belief was that travellers who swelled the economy of the region in the warmer months were simply ignorant to the fact the area was still open for business.

“From what we’ve seen, it’s people’s perception that it’s closed - [contrary] to what the reality is.”

Carson’s Books has operated continuously for the past 117 years, helmed over that time by just four owners.

Current owner Greg Hampton acknowledged the support his business received from the Government. “It’s been fantastic. Without [the Government’s support through] Covid and [Cyclone] Gabrielle, we may not be here.”

“There is quite a legacy with this shop. Not on our watch will we be closing down,” said a staff member.

“We don’t want to be the ones responsible, " added Hampton.

Like Sepuloni, he believes tourists’ perception of the Coromandel being closed has been shaped by news reports: “The media narrative is hugely important. We see [that] if RNZ is reporting difficulties on the roads, no one wants to get stuck anywhere. It’s a catch-22- you want to let people know of difficulties, but also that we’re still open.”

Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni met in July with staff and the owner at Carson's Bookshop in Thames and heard their concerns.

Kate, who runs an antique shop in Thames along with her husband, is a former nurse, and moved away from the healthcare space to keep the family business afloat.

“My husband needs me to run this. Turned-over revenue was down 40 per cent and we made two staff redundant. I took pay cuts - I now work [on the] minimum wage, which is not what I was doing in health, but I need to do it to support this family. It’s been super-tough,” she told Sepuloni.

Kate is resolute about the situation she and other businesspeople find themselves in, and is being proactive by taking on the job of writing a newsletter every week to highlight a local business. She currently has a readership of around 800 people, and said getting the word out is paramount so visitors “make the effort to come back to Thames”.

Like Greg Hampton, Kate believes “coverage that the roads are closed” is undoubtedly still affecting businesses in the town.

While the economic downturn has many pessimistic, Whangamatā micro-brewery Salt District Brewing’s owner, Liam Blunden, thinks the Coromandel may finally be turning a corner towards greener, hop-filled pastures.

Blunden, along with his business partner, opened the door to his micro-brewery cellar and retail room in Whangamatā six months after beginning his journey brewing his creations for a local bar.

Salt District’s premises, just off Whangamatā’s main drag on Winifred Avenue, have had many incarnations and were originally a service headquarters for the local forestry operations, then a mechanic’s followed a surf shop.

Customers can fill printed flagons straight off the tap, and the vision behind the brewery was born from Blunden “just wanting to live here” (in Whangamatā).

A butcher by trade, Blunden got his start as a beer-maker with a contract brewer in Hawke’s Bay. Originally from Red Beach, north of Auckland, Blunden said he was enticed to come to Whangamatā after a steady summer diet of surfing in his younger years that has continued to this day: “I have [spent] every summer here since I was 17. In Whangamatā, If you wanna live here, you have to be a tradie or have your own business.”

Like others, the brewery was not immune to Mother Nature’s wrath last summer: “We thought it was going to be epic, but for three weekends we couldn’t open because flooding was just coming down the road, " Blunden said.

Despite his best intentions for a bumper summer, he said red tape stemming from compliance and change of use had slowed plans for larger events. “I’m pushing pretty hard to get a bar going by this summer, but the council has kind of thrown us a few curveballs which are very expensive.”

Notwithstanding the setbacks, Blunden is aiming to increase his production from 650 litres per month.

“Come summer, we’ll be pushing just over 1000 litres per month.” Currently, the brewery is open two days a week, and Blunden is aiming to ramp that up to “four to five days per week from this summer”.

He said one bright note was the annual Beach Hop car festival, which increased patronage. “Beach Hop was awesome. It’s great for [the] town, especially if you have a bad summer.”

“I’m pretty happy working in a brewery - don’t mind the odd late night.”