Green light for McCashin brewery

The McCashin family has been given the go-ahead to hit the start button at its Stoke brewery.

Resource consent has been granted to use a coal-fired boiler, to store and sort bottles on the company's premises and to take groundwater from bores on the site for use in its products and to sell as a new bottled water product.

The application involves re-establishment of the brewery within existing buildings, which had housed the Rochdale Cider plant since 1941, and which was bought by Terry and Bev McCashin in 1980.

Family spokeswoman Emma McCashin said they were "thrilled, relieved and excited" to be able to get under way with business.

The McCashins would now start recruiting staff from the pool of local people who have put up their hands for a job at the plant. They hope to employ up to 20 people.

"We have hundreds of people registered, and we will now start the recruitment process of casual staff, many of whom are local people looking for work and who are willing to give anything a go," Mrs McCashin said.

She said that while the decision was not a complete surprise, it was a huge relief because "you just don't know".

A total of 27 submissions were received by deadline, and a further nine afterwards, but the commissioners, resource management consultants John Iseli from Christchurch and Rachel Reese of Nelson, declined to accept the late submissions which were all in support of the application.

The McCashins told a commissioner hearing in October that significant investment was at stake as it sought a range of resource consents to enable it to re-start its Stoke brewery.

The family was prepared to spend up to $250,000 on a two-stage upgrade of the site's coal-fired boiler to meet tighter air-quality controls, Mrs McCashin told the commissioners.

They said in their decision that if the applicants complied with the conditions imposed by the consent, discharge from the boiler would "not be contrary to the objectives and policies of the Nelson Air Quality Plan".

Consent was granted to take water from the existing bores at the Stoke plant, with conditions that included regular monitoring, and that the council could review conditions annually.

The McCashins have made inroads on several new ventures including formation of a joint venture with Nelson berry products firm Sujon Berries to produce a beverage called Frute. They also plan to revive the historic Rochdale cider product for which the Stoke site was renowned, and to develop their own pure bottled water, branded Palaeo.

The McCashins have also recently taken over the 26000 Vodka brand with plans to produce it on site for export and domestic markets.

The McCashins began brewing beer at the Stoke plant in 1981 and in 1999 Lion Nathan bought the brewing rights to the Mac's brands. Operations ceased in August last year, and in April this year the McCashins took back management of the site which had been leased to Lion Nathan.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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