8 May 2014 - Best Beer HQ

News: Speight’s brewery upgraded in New Zealand

Speight's Dunedin brewery upgraded

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has officially reopened the Speight’s Brewery in Dunedin following a $40m upgrade project.

The country’s second largest brewery has been refurbished to cope with demand in the wake of the deadly Christchurch earthquakes of 2011 which, along with untold damage and loss of life, caused the city’s Canterbury Brewery to close.

“With the loss of the Canterbury Brewery, overnight Speight’s became our second largest brewery in New Zealand. With that came new, significantly larger production requirements and complexities that Speight’s just wasn’t geared up to deal with,” he said.

The new and improved Speight’s brewery now houses a new 150HI brew house, new offices, a multi-purpose tank farm, a new refrigeration plant and upgraded boilers. The keg and Maltexo plants from the former Christchurch brewery have also been moved south to Dunedin.

The Speight’s brewery will now have a brewing capacity of more than 24 million litres per year – up from 11 million litres before its redevelopment. It will operate five days a week and employ 27 permanent brewery workers.

Australasian food and beverage corporation Lion owns the Speight’s Brewery along with a string of others in Australia. Its CEO Stuart Irvine said the project marks the corporation’s second-largest capital investment in New Zealand.

“We’ve been a part of Dunedin and New Zealand for around 150 years and the reopening of the Speight’s Brewery today helps set us on course for the next 100,” he added. “This project has reinvigorated the Speight’s Brewery and enabled us to ensure it remains iconic and leading edge for years to come.”

The Speight’s Brewery has been on its current site in Rattray Street in Dunedin since 1876, when founders James Speight, William Dawson and Charles Greenslade resigned from the local Well Park Brewery and set up a competing one.

News New Zealand /