Samantha Motion: Back from the brink - Maketu Pies' extraordinary survival

Maketu Pies is an iconic New Zealand brand. Photo / NZME

OPINION

Single-industry towns are a tricky economic proposition.

They live and die at the whims of national, or often global, market forces well beyond the influence of the generations of locals who toil in the factory.

The business employs most of the town residents but those salaries also support a host of other service and hospitality enterprises such as a dairy, a hairdresser and, inevitably, a pub.

So when an ill wind blows through the market and the factory faces closure, the devastation goes beyond the directly impacted employees to their families and neighbours.

Some towns in this situation manage to hang on through economic diversification or perhaps the tentacles of a big city envelop it as house prices drive people to look further afield.

Skilled employees move on but those with less mobility or too great an affection for the land to leave may fall into poverty. And the question falls to local authorities as to whether they try to revive the town, or abandon it to a slow death.

There are fringe and rural towns around New Zealand teetering on the edge. Urbanites have perhaps seen them flash by on a highway or stumbled across one on a back road adventure.

Maketū is one of these small communities. You wouldn't go so far as to suggest it is on the brink, but it has certainly not been in growth mode - the population has hovered just under 1200 for the last three Census takings.

The news in 2019 that the business which put Maketū on the national map - Maketu Pies - was in receivership and up for sale, hit like a hammer.

It was not the only work in town, but it was the largest year-round employer with 40 staff, and it had been around for 36 years. Few local families would be untouched if it went under.

Community Board member Shane Beech - sometimes known as the 'mayor' of Maketū - said then: "It is absolutely devastating. If they were to close it would have a huge impact on the Maketū community."

Te Arawa Management Ltd, the commercial arm of Te Arawa Lakes Trust, took ownership of the business towards the end of 2019. Maketu was the place where the Te Arawa canoe landed and remains an important part of the iwi's rohe, so this was not a partnership between strangers.

But we all know what happened three months later: lockdown. And yet, New Zealand's most iconic pie brand survives.

This week, we visited Maketu Pies a year-and-a-half on from that first receivership notice.

Senior business reporter Zoe Hunter found an operation thriving - and even hiring.

The bakery was coming up with new flavours and had introduced initiatives including apprenticeships and ongoing training for its staff - most of them locals.

"We're actually putting the Maketū back in Maketu Pies," said general manager Lynne Pryor.

The outward signs for the survival of this iconic business seem good, which is great news for lovers of pies and Kiwiana everywhere.

It's an admirable and incredible turnaround that demonstrates the resilience of small towns able to grasp some power over their own destiny.