The Whanganui Distilling Company Ltd t/a Papaiti Gin

Incredibly proud of how far we've come in just over two years. We love being part of the wonderfully collaborative and supporting business community here in Whanganui. 💫

We are so stoked to be teaming up with Zealandia Ecosanctuary! If you're into nature and gin or delicious food and gin or all of the above, then this is for you. We'll be crafting gin on site, using a variety of native botanicals (obviously not foraged from within the sanctuary, that's a big no-no, don't even think about it!) and then there will be a degustation dinner where you get to eat and taste and listen to us talk about gin. What could be a better use of your time, really?

Navigating a challenging economy is never easy, especially not if you're a relatively new family-run business. From rising costs to seasonally fluctuating demand - there's always something to worry about. But one big lesson we've learned so far: if you spend your days worrying, you're not changing the situation one bit. What you should be focusing on is how you can make the most of the circumstances you're in. Here are a few things that have been really helpful for us: 💡Gin is a summer product, but gin making classes are not. Early on we started thinking about additional products and income streams to make sure winter wouldn't affect us as much. Offering gin making classes in addition to just selling gin completely shifted the dial and led to a whole lot of amazing opportunities within the tourism industry. 🤝 We built strong relationships: No entrepreneur is an island. From day one we knew we wanted to be an active player in the Whanganui business landscape and really focus on collaboration opportunities. Whanganui is full of incredibly creative and driven people, so the list of collaborations is a long one: we've created bespoke gins for local businesses, started offering gin cruises on board the Paddle Steamer Waimarie, sourced a whole lot of botanicals from local growers, joined the River Market, and offered Mixology courses. Among many other things. These relationships are what makes business fun, especially in tough times, because you realise: you're not alone, we can all lift each other up, and we'll get through it together. 🌟 We celebrate the wins - all of them, not just the big trophies and gold medals. Recognising what we have achieved and how far we've come helps balance out the worry. It's good to keep an eye on your 5-year-goal but breaking it down into quarterly/monthly/weekly goals helps keep us on track and gives us a sense of achievement. And we all know how good it feels to tick off to-do lists, don't we? 💪 We work on our resilience. It's a business buzzword, for sure, and often used to make employees work harder and not care about a rotten work environment. That's not what we're talking about here. For us, resilience is staying mentally on track without hopping onto the 'carousel of constant worry'. It's easy to get sidetracked by big concerns and a feeling of overwhelm, especially if you are your own boss. The trick is to recognise your mental triggers and consciously shift your mindset to focus on something more productive. Not easy, but once you've got a little practice, it's a game changer. Is there something else we could do to stay positive and on track while navigating the current economic climate? We'd love to know how you are handling these challenges and add them to the list! #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #Resilience #Innovation #BusinessGrowth #Leadership

DOUBLE-GOLD, NZ Spirits Awards 2024 SILVER, NZ Small Batch Gin Awards 2024 SILVER, London Spirits Competition 2023 SILVER, NZ Spirits Awards 2023 BRONZE, The Junipers 2023 That's what happens if you continuously improve processes, listen to feedback and refine the recipe. Back when we scouted out potential premises for our distillery a designated cellar door space was somewhere on the 'nice to have' list. Our main concern was to have enough space for the production equipment and a good storage area (pallets and pallets of bottles and boxes and whatnot take up a LOT of space). We were so lucky we ended up with a decent cellar door and enough tasting space for groups up to 10. Ever since we got our off-license, cellar door sales have generated a crucial income stream - right up there with trade, often surpassing it, especially in off-season months. But what's more important: the direct feedback from consumers has been invaluable. Every time someone comments on what flavours they pick up on and what they particularly like, we take note. And those notes help us make better spirits. In just under 2 years we've collected 22 medals across our four core range gins and we're obviously incredibly stoked about the industry recognition. But what we care even more about is whether our consumers enjoy the gin. In the end it really comes down to the old business adage: never lose sight of your target audience.

Team Papaiti Gin is proud to present co-founder and head distiller Adrian Rumney's first exhibition: Beyond the Still: Landscapes Unveiled. A man of many talents, Adrian used to be a cycling race photographer. These days he’s all about landscape photography, capturing that magical moment when the light is just right. During Artists Open Studios our cellar door shop will be open Monday-Friday 12-4 and Saturday & Sunday 10-3. Make sure to pop by and have a look!

There are now over 140 distilleries across New Zealand from Kerikeri to Invercargill – a marked increase since 2018, when New Zealand had just 27 distilleries. Our industry directly supports over 910 jobs and supports a further 1500 jobs throughout the supply chain, from primary producers to the hospitality and tourism sectors. Significantly, more than half of these businesses are in rural and regional areas, bringing important economic benefits to these communities. In New Zealand excise represents over 50% of overheads for distillers. We are asking the New Zealand Government to consider introducing an ‘Excise Support Package’ that comprises of up to $350,000 NZD excise rebate per distillery per year. Simply put, an Excise Support Package will leave spirits manufacturers with a greater margin. This will enable businesses to expand operations, employ more people, support more local businesses throughout the supply chain, and to market abroad and consider their export potential. An initial survey suggests that if the requested support package was implemented in 2023, it would immediately lead to more than 120 new jobs paying above the median wage in the spirits sector. The spirit’s industry is at a similar point to where New Zealand’s wine industry was in the 1980s. That industry showed promise then and is now an important contributor to New Zealand’s agricultural, tourism, and exports industries. The value of New Zealand wine exports reached $2 Billion in 2020. The New Zealand spirits’ sector currently has an export value of $45.8 million and it is expected that if a ‘“Support Package’” was introduced it would accelerate current exports, with New Zealand made spirits having the potential to match if not exceed the value of New Zealand’s Wine Exports. Currently, the spirits industry has been proceeding with limited government support. Distilled Spirits Aotearoa has recognised that with an excise support package in place, it would accelerate the distilled spirits sectors growth which would result in an increased economic benefit to New Zealand through the export market. If you're keen to support the local spirits industry, please share this with your MP! #dsa #distilledspiritsaotearoa #spiritsindustry #nzspirits #nzgin

In addition to our gin crafting experiences we’ve recently run a series of Mixology Masterclasses with the absolutely fantastic Emily Hayes - what a blast! We’re planning to do this again come February/March, sign up for our Newsletter if you want to be the first to know or get in touch if you’d like to book us for a event and run a private gin tasting/cocktail making/distillation session for you 🥂 👉 https://papaitigin.co.nz

So stoked to host the Tourism New Zealand Travel Trade crew earlier this month! This is one of those developments we absolutely didn't foresee when opening our distillery: we're not only making gin, we've become a destination. When we started offering gin crafting classes we anticipated to run ten, maybe fifteen before the end of the year. We never thought it would be more than a random side project, really. Well, yesterday we ran class number 76. And bookings are coming in strong. 76 fantastic groups (there were a few one-person classes, equally fantastic, but most people come in small groups), 76 unique recipes, not a single un-drinkable gin. It brings us so much joy to help our participants explore botanical combinations and share our passion for distilling well-balanced spirits. Plus those classes turned out to be a great way to keep up with R&D, test new flavour combos, and explore the boundaries of our botanical collection. It's a win-win for everyone involved, we'd say. Thanks heaps to Whanganui & Partners for sending Tourism NZ our way, we can't wait to develop more opportunities in the Visitor Experience space!