Brewers help peddle bike business

Rotorua bike builder Jeff Anderson may have to re-think his drink of choice, after he was chosen to be part of a new Mac's Beer promotion.

The KiwiBikes owner features in the New Zealand beer's new Craft Collective giveaway, where Mac's customers enter to win "Clever Stuff made by Crafty Kiwis".

One of those crafty Kiwis is Mr Anderson and the clever stuff is his Jeffson bespoke hand-made bikes. A two-minute video showing him at work was filmed over six hours in Rotorua last week and he's delighted with the result.

He will hand craft two bikes for Mac's, one to be given away to a lucky winner who enters online using a code from the beer carton.

The Mac's promotion was launched this week and Mr Anderson believes the nationwide exposure will be priceless - even more beneficial than riders winning gold medals on his bikes.

"This will be the best promotion my business has ever been involved in because it gives a direct insight [into what I do]."

He said when the Mac's representative called him about five months ago, he at first thought it was a joke. "I couldn't believe it was for real. They said we want to pay you."

Mr Anderson said it wasn't often large companies helped out small up and coming businesses in this way.

"It's just blown me away," he said. "To promote someone else's product is amazing and they [Mac's] deserve a huge amount of respect for doing that."

KiwiBikes was forced to move out of its Pukuatua St premises last July as the building needed earthquake strengthening. For seven months Mr Anderson worked from home, moving into the new Redwoods Centre two months ago.

The Mac's promotion has come as a timely boost for his business.

"It's finally actually coming together how I want it. You can't do it overnight."

Mr Anderson said as far as he was aware Mac's found him via a Google search, which for him reinforced the importance of a good website. He said his site had about 1500 hits a month, about 70 per cent from within New Zealand.

"It will be interesting to see if that changes from the [Mac's] promotion."

But the big question is does he drink Mac's?

"I do like Mac's but I support the Croucher guys [Rotorua's Croucher Brewery] ... I don't know what beer to drink!" he laughed.

To see Mr Anderson's Mac's video, visit the website craftcollective.macs.co.nz.