Resurrected Green Man looks to Asia

Green Man Brewery's sales and marketing manager Kelly Lindsay anticipates brewing resuming by the...
Green Man Brewery's sales and marketing manager Kelly Lindsay anticipates brewing resuming by the end of the month. Photo by Peter McIntosh.
Dunedin's Green Man Brewery has been resurrected with a new focus on export sales to Asia.

Green Man has been bought out of liquidation, for an undisclosed sum.

The new owner is making a multimillion-dollar investment with all new equipment being imported.

Mingchun ''William'' Qiu, of Christchurch, has retained the existing two staff and branding.

He plans to expand the Grange St, North Dunedin, enterprise, import new Chinese equipment and begin export sales.

Green Man, established in 2006, was the country's first certified organic craft beer producer and has won several awards.

Mr Qiu, the sole director and shareholder of Green Man Brewery Ltd, said the new equipment would have annual capacity of 8-10 million (330ml) bottles a year, but would initially be revived with smaller output.

He expects production will be 50:50 for domestic and export markets, the latter including China, Singapore and other Asian destinations.

''For the business to be sustainable we want two markets, not to rely on just one. [And] it's important to keep up domestic supply for the Otago people,'' Mr Qiu said.

Staffing is expected to increase from two to up to five, including office staff and marketers for both domestic and exports sales, he said.

Green Man sales and marketing manager Kelly Lindsay said the initial target of the new plant is to produce the equivalent of 30,000, 330ml bottles every two months, with Dunedin's students and locals the first market, which will include riggers and kegs.

Green Man is installing eight 2000-litre tanks; four conditioning and four for finishing carbonation, prior to bottling''We're working mean and lean starting off with no market or retail presence,'' Mr Lindsay said yesterday.

Green Man would change from making six beer types, to producing a pilsner, ale and dark beer, he said.

Mr Qiu is still finalising the purchase of new plant from China and expects it could be in the country in about 10 weeks, including additional tanks equating to an extra 8000 litres, pasteurising, bottle-washing and labelling equipment.

Mr Qiu's background is in exporting primary produce, including dairy, honey and wine and also probiotics.

Mr Lindsay said the company was ''waiting for the green light'', from the Dunedin City Council and Customs; over regulatory and compliance requirements, and hoped a ''first batch'', could be started some time during the next two weeks.

Green Man was placed in liquidation in December by its 13 shareholders.

Since it was founded its shareholders' had injected capital of almost $1.4 million, but at liquidation it owed 52 creditors $330,000, and was put up for sale as a going concern by Insolvency Management.

Liquidator Iain Nellies was contacted and said ''numerous parties'' had shown interest in the purchase, but a shortlist of three parties with ''serious expressions of interest'' was established before Mr Qiu purchased Green Man.

Mr Nellies said the ANZ bank debt had been cleared by the sale, but with only a small, undisclosed payout to three preferential creditors.

Of the 52 creditors at December, Green Man has seven secured creditors, including the ANZ bank, and owed those seven a total of $159,463.

Three preferential creditors were owed $46,610, and 42 unsecured creditors were owed $124,343.

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

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