Brothers Beer are back in business and aim to pay off all their creditors by the end of 2024 says new general manager Frans Bos.
They’ve had a management restructure, just hired Dylan Adams as head brewer after he lost his job when Deep Creek went into liquidation last month, and they are operating at two venues — at Mount Eden and Piha.
The original brew kit from City Works Depot has been largely picked up by Manaia Craft Brewers.
Brothers Beer went into voluntary administration hot on the heels of Epic going into liquidation. A few weeks later Deep Creek went into liquidation.
As a result, Bos feels their fate has been exaggerated. They never went out of business but rather, they needed voluntary administrator PWC to restructure the business to make it successful.
The first step was a cash injection from shareholders totalling $1 million. The parent company Brothers Beer Holdings Ltd also got rid of five of the seven venues they operated. After unsuccessfully trying to sell those businesses, they got nothing for City Works Depot, Onehunga, Orakei, Birkenhead and Commercial Bay.
“There’s a lot of confusion out there as to whether we are still open or if we are finished? I’ve heard a few comments that we are finished, that we’re done and dusted and that’s not the case — we’re in a good space,” Bos said.
“People see ‘administration’ and think ‘liquidation’ but we’re not in liquidation.
“The voluntary administrators handed the business back to us six weeks ago. They will continue to oversee it until the creditors are paid in full.
“We’re hoping to get everyone paid off in the next 12 months at which point PWC will step away. Until then they will touch base every quarter to check that we are at where we said we’d be.”
As part of the restructure, major shareholder and founder Anthony Browne stepped down as GM and Bos took on the role.
Bos came into the business a few years ago to run the retail side. He has a background in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) with Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE) which in 2016 bought BrewGroup NZ, formerly Bell Tea & Coffee.
Bos says one of his goals now is to make people aware that the Mount Eden brewpub in Akiraho Street is still open.
“We’re still brewing in Mount Eden, and have that venue and Piha.”
Former head brewer Brandon Nash has left the business and is returning to the US, Bos said.