KEY POINTS:
The product empire that has been built around the Tui beer brand could earn $2.5 million this year thanks to the latest addition - the meat pie.
DB Breweries' take on traditional Kiwi tucker follows Tui's initial foray into foods this year with a tomato sauce.
DB's commercial manager, Nick Rogers, said the extensions to the Tui brand drew a positive response, although the effect on beer sales could not be quantified.
"I do like the idea of people giving you the nod of approval - it's the same with the billboards. They may not necessarily drink the beer, but they love the billboards."
Rogers said he had "no expectations" for the pies, which are made under licence and distributed by Hawkes Bay's Goodtime Foods. Goodtime made about 5000 Tui pies weekly, but the production rate was increasing by about 20 per cent a week.
"You've got dairies, service stations in the middle of nowhere doing over 100 pies a week."
But distribution was still patchy, he said. "It will slowly leak into the market."
As with Tuimato sauce, which now sells up to 7000 bottles a week, Rogers said the brand recognition was what clinched the sale.
Like the T-shirts, billboards and books, pies and sauce were about staying true to the brand. "Boys love pies, they love sauce. New Zealanders drown their foods in tomato sauce ... so the products that we have come out are right in the boy zone.
"People approach us about doing ice cream and other stuff - it just doesn't feel right." Rogers said Tui had been DB's most successful brand extension to date, with projections the merchandise and food items could touch the $2.5 million mark this year.
Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer in marketing Mark Glynn said the Tui brand had been extremely successful.
"The idea of a successful brand extension is when you take the well-known features of a particular brand and you put it in a new category hoping to really capitalise on that brand awareness. ... [people] may be more willing to try this particular product because of the Tui name."
TUI EMPIRE
* Close to $2.5 million worth of Tui-related merchandising is sold annually.
* The Yeah Right book has sold more than 65,000 copies and was the second best-selling non-fiction title in 2006.
* The Tui Brewery in Mangatainoka receives 40,000 visitors a year.
* Up to 7000 bottles of Tuimato sauce are sold weekly, second only to Wattie's.
