KEY POINTS:
A small West Coast brewery with ambitious $100 million expansion plans has raised more than $1.3 million and is close to signing a lease for its first concept bar.
Westcoast Brewery, which owns the former Miners' Brewery in Westport, is headed by Good Bastard founder and former Hokitika man, Paddy Sweeney.
The company released a prospectus last year and started raising $2 million through a New Zealand share offer.
"We've received money from Whangarei to Bluff," Sweeney said.
Sweeney is waiting to finalise a lease on a Christchurch bar, details of which are being kept under wraps.
"It will be a West Coast bar and grill, in an extremely high-profile position."
Three architects have already contributed ideas, and the bar will get a $1.5 million fitout geared towards a June opening.
The brewery is also negotiating for its first bottle shop.
In the next six months, there are plans to open an Australian division and start raising capital there. However, it would always be a West Coast brewery, Sweeney said.
It has also secured a number of sponsorship rights which should boost its profile in the coming year.
As well as being the new principal sponsor at the Hokitika Wildfoods Festival, the brewery will be at the Hastings Brews, Blues and Barbecues event and the New Zealand Beer Fest, in Auckland.
A new bottling and labelling machine for the Westport brewery has arrived in Auckland, and can do several thousand an hour.
Westcoast Brewery has some high-profile directors, including former XXXX brewery boss Barry McAlister, and Paul Wyatt, who transformed a Queensland football club into a financial dream team.
Sweeney said he had surrounded himself with smart people to ensure the business succeeded.
Its main competitors in the New Zealand beer markets are Lion Nathan and Dominion Breweries.
- Otago Daily Times
