Making a crust at Wisey's Pies

Wisey's is the biggest baked goods shop in Onekawa, well-supported by surrounding industrial premises. Photo / Supplied

Wisey's Pies, one of Hawke's Bay's best-known family-owned pie shops and bakeries is for sale as a going-concern business within leased premises.

Located in the industrial Napier suburb of Onekawa, Wisey's Pies has been baking the crusty comestibles for 10 years. The business has an A-grade food safety rating and last year achieved a turnover of $1.3m.

The Wisey's Pies brand is well known for supporting Hawke's Bay sport - including the Napier stock car competition at Meeanee Speedway and the Taylor Hawks basketball team's quest to top the professional National Basketball League.

In addition to a wide selection of pies, Wisey's produces baked goods including muffins, doughnuts, pastries, rolls and sandwiches; a three-wand espresso coffee machine adds beverage revenues to the business.

The business is being marketed for sale by negotiation by Bayleys Hawke's Bay. It operates out of a leased purpose-built 670sq m premises with an abundance of off-street customer and staff carparking.

Latest consumption data from Food Standards Australia New Zealand showed bakers in this country produced 66m pies during the 2016 calendar year - with the average Kiwi consuming 15.

By comparison, Australians gobbled their way through an average of 12 meat pies person over the same period.

The Food Standards Code stipulates that a meat pie must contain a minimum of 25 per cent of meat flesh. The remaining 75 per cent of a meat pie must consist of pastry, gravy and vegetable protein.

Bayleys Hawke's Bay salesperson Gary Wise says Wisey's Pies employs seven full time bakers and service personnel, with two additional part-time staff working the Saturday morning shift. The bakery is closed Saturday afternoons and Sundays.

Wise says the business has two complementary revenue streams: retail operations in the industrial precinct of Onekawa; and a wholesale arm supplying product to schools, cafes, clubs and caterers across Hawke's Bay.

The retail business sells a wide range of baked goods including muffins, doughnuts, pastries, rolls and sandwiches. Photo / Supplied

"While there is excellent penetration in the Napier wholesale market, there is the potential to expand sales to the wider Hawke's Bay region, similar to what Maketu Pies has achieved from small beginnings in a Bay of Plenty town to now having a presence throughout the North Island," he says.

"From a retail perspective, the business benefits from being totally vertically integrated.

It sells everything it makes on-site, therefore avoiding the need to buy-in finished product.

"Wisey's is the biggest baked goods shop in Onekawa, being well-supported by high volume foot-traffic from the surrounding industrial premises."

The bakery's revenues increased by 25 per cent over the five-year period from 2012, with gross profit rising by 14 per cent over the same period.

Bakery chattels include commercial ovens, walk-in chiller rooms, dough mixers and a full suite of display cabinets. Photo / Supplied

Chattels include commercial ovens, walk-in chiller rooms, dough mixers and ingredient preparation cookers, cooling racks, a full suite of display cabinets.

Wise says all equipment used in the bakery's production processes has been maintained to a high standard over the past decade, as has the public-facing retail floor space.

Wise adds that quality controllers at Wisey's Pies constantly assess pies on production criteria, including: shape retention while on display, the degree of ingredient cooking for fillings, base and crust thickness, ingredient portioning, colour and finishing.

"The traditional Kiwi pie has come a long way since early last century. Flavours now encompass mince and gravy, mince and cheese, steak and gravy, steak and cheese, chicken and vegetable, gourmet meat such as wild pork and venison, vegetarian, bacon and egg, gourmet fruit, potato-top, fish, Thai curry, and Indian curry."