On the night of Monday 7th October, an accidental fire broke out at the Sawmill Brewery, which is situated north of Auckland near Matakana. Fire crews were called to the brewery late Monday night. The damage has been investigated and the fire has been found to be accidental and not electrical. It started inside the building and spread into the office and roof. It took local fire crews over two hours to contain the blaze. No one was injured but unfortunately the damage to the office and services within the building is extensive and therefore the Brewery and Smoko Room will be closed until repairs can be made.
Fortunately most of the beer is stored off-site and so continuing to service customers will be a top priority for the business. Thanks in part to the generosity of other breweries Sawmill are able to send their brew team off site and will continue to brew their full range over summer while the brewery is rebuilt.
Sawmill Brewery has always run their business from the perspective of being independent, resourceful and real. This really gets put to the test in a situation like this.
As Mike Sutherland (co-owner of the brewery) said “We have a hard working and resilient team around us. We are gutted this has happened but we will recover and come out stronger for it“.
Owners of the brewery – Mike Sutherland and Kirsty McKay want to acknowledge the incredible work of the fire crews that came from five different fire stations throughout Auckland to battle the blaze. “We are immensely grateful to the teams for their incredible skill in containing the fire. “
“Thank you for all the messages and offers of help that keep flooding in from near and far – we are so thankful for our incredible community and we will keep you all updated on how we tackle this. In the meantime the best support we can ask for is to continue enjoying Sawmill beer”.
All updates on the progress and status of the Smoko Room and Brewery will be on social media.
@thesmokoroom
For all orders and customer enquiries email orders@sawmillbrewery.co.nz
