Businesses urged to have a go

• Published date: 26 April 2024
• Author: Janine Baalbergen
• Publication title: Horowhenua Chronicle

Guest speaker Chris Barber from the Bond Store in Kāpiti shared his story and how his business adapted to the market

That included product choice but also packaging, as well as learning to cope with a saturated market.

A distillery run by a family of three, the Bond Store was one of five founders of the national organisation of gin distillers.

“Now there are 90. The pandemic helped create more suppliers,” he said.

He started out buying into Limoncello and found the bottle stores would rather have gin, so he switched.

“Observing what people were buying by standing outside shops, we confirmed that preference.”

He said they owned a farm in the Wairarapa which had a lot of kawakawa trees, so they made gin using their own kawakawa.

He found that a lot of gin brands were expensive, but most customers bought the cheaper versions so they matched that price, of about $40.

In their first year they won a bronze medal in the NZ Spirits Awards. They opted for a tall skinny bottle when they realised that a...