Orakei Gin Distillery

The distillery occupied the space where Ampersand café and restaurant and Farro Fresh are now located. The architecture and design of the buildings retain and reflect the origin of the industrial site.

The distillery began in 1959 on the industrial site which was formerly occupied by the Pye Radio and TV company owned by Al Bell. The Distillers Company (New Zealand) Ltd., a subsidiary of the English Distillers Company, Ltd., was set up in 1959 with Sir Ernest Davis as the Chair. Its purpose was to import bulk gin and bottle it locally. The company’s plant in Orakei Road was designed so that ultimately, when a gin distillery was established here, it would be able to rectify, compound and bottle locally produced gin. [1]

All ingredients came from the UK by shipping container. Dried goods were in sacks on pallets and extractor fans were used to take out moisture. However, the spirit initially came from the Khyber Pass brewery for grain and spirit but then moved to alcohol from whey brought by tankers from the distillery in Edgecumbe in the Bay of Plenty.

The Orakei distillery was managed by Grainger Hannah, described as a dour Scot, who lived in Martin Avenue, Remuera. [2]

There was a demineralised water plant downstairs for de-ionizing water and NZ Motor Corp would buy deionized water for batteries. Every few weeks filters would need to be changed. All the pipework was made of stainless steel.

It took about an hour to get the steam up to temperature in the morning. Mechanical failures were regular in the bottling lines. About 80-100 staff were on site, most of whom arrived by train.

There was a chemist onsite in the Lab, which was downstairs with the head distiller’s office. The stills would be polished as copper would brighten up with phosphorous from coca cola. There was no air conditioning, only overhead fans. The boiler room was downstairs by the storage room.

A grain distillery was also set up on the corner of Khyber Pass and Mountain Rd. It would supply alcohol to three rectifying, compounding and bottling plants in Orakei Rd, Te Atatu and Mountain Road, producing gin, vodka and whisky.

All the 30,000 gallons of the base spirit which left the Khyber Pass plant every month went out in sealed tankers. The seals had to be broken by a Customs officer at the re-distilling and bottling plants.

Duty from locally made spirits brought in $7.6 million in 1971. It’s likely that Ron Dyer and the team based at Orakei were the most profitable civil servants in New Zealand. [3]

The Te Atatu and Orakei distilleries were closed in 1992 and production moved to Edgecumbe. Guinness had bought Gordon’s Gin and wanted to close the NZ operation after import duties were removed by the Labour Government in the 1980s.

The stills were removed by crane and sent back to England.

The owners were Distillers Company plc which was a leading Scotch whisky company. It was taken over in 1986 by Guinness & Co. (now part of Diageo) and was renamed as United Distillers in 1987. In 1998 United Distillers was merged with International Distillers & Vintners to create United Distillers & Vintners, forming the spirits division of Diageo plc. The company still exists today as Diageo Scotland Ltd. Source Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Distillers_Company Aug 2024.

Remuera Heritage was grateful to have Diane Robinson speak to us on her research into the Orakei Distillery. She is currently writing a modern-day murder mystery set in a distillery in Orakei Road!

Diane reports that the ‘research’ requires her and her supporters to taste a variety of gins produced by the over 150 distilleries in NZ. An ex-Remuera resident, you can find out more about her novels at www.roseandfernpublishing.nz Diane’s novel ‘Nikolai’s Quest’ is a finalist in this year’s Ngaio Marsh Book Awards.