Our history
It all started with a small homebrew store in Petone, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Delve further into our history and timeline.
1989
A homebrewer with an entrepreneurial flair decided that he would take his passion and turn it into a business. He opened a small homebrew store in Petone, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
1992
A scientist established Sachetpack Limited (later becoming SPL International) in England, devoting himself to building an international company within the home brewing and commercial alcoholic drinks industries. The company grew quickly in the first two years, creating interest from the press with articles in the Financial Times and a number of business awards.
1993
Through several years of Research and Development, our scientist invented Turbo Yeast a range of fast fermenting yeast and nutrition products for the home spirit market in Scandinavia that are now used worldwide.
1995
By this time, our budding homebrew business really started humming along, and by 1995 he had a solid home brewing shop with regular customers. He also started producing his own range of distilling flavours and stills under the brand Still Spirits which he was wholesaling to homebrew stores around New Zealand. He met Hamish Dowell who acquired a home brewing beer kit company. After a good chat they decided to merge their respective homebrew businesses, calling themselves Brewcraft Ltd and focusing on wholesaling homebrew products in New Zealand.
1996
SPL supplied Brewcraft in New Zealand (later to become Imake Ltd) with their first order of home distillation products.
2000
Brewcraft Ltd, launched its first offshore establishment by acquisition of an existing homebrew company in Australia and the Australian wholesale business was born.
2005
Brewcraft Ltd started a joint venture wholesale operation in the UK focused on distribution of Still Spirits branded products.
2009
Brewcraft Ltd launched its own range of beer kits (produced by SPL).
2010
Brewcraft Ltd is renamed as Imake Ltd to position itself better in the DIY food industry. This was also the time that the Mad Millie brand started to be developed, launching late that year.
2012
After spending three years researching and developing ingredients and packaging technology, SPL & Imake launched a range of premium quality ‘pouch’ beer, and cider kits, under the brand Mangrove Jack’s.
2013
The initial concepts for the Grainfather started to unfold after a research trip to Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, SPL attained BRC grade ‘AA’, this is a retailer quality standard that ensures all ingredient products satisfy the quality, safety and operational criteria standards that the world’s top retailers demand.
2014
Imake launched the Grainfather into New Zealand, with the worldwide launch following soon after. Imake also acquired a 50% share in SPL. Philip Jones, founder of SPL, who was still running the business at this time, sadly passed away after a short battle with illness, in the same year.
2015
The Imake UK office and warehouse is established to further expand its brands into the UK and Europe.
2016
Imake acquired the remaining 50% share in SPL and it became a subsidiary.
2017
Imake selected a second European warehouse located in the Netherlands to start servicing the EU market directly the following year.
2018
Imake and SPL merge their cultures and goals and start functioning as one enterprise. As part of this, they decide to go for a fresh new name which better represents the whole business, culture and what they are about. The name Bevie was selected and a new entity was created. Bevie became a subsidiary of the U.S. based Rahr Corporation, and joined the Brewers Supply Group, International.
2019
Following Peter’s retirement, Bevie hires a new CEO in John van Rensburg (“JvR”) to lead and drive the business though ambitious plans as a global organisation.
2020
Bevie completes the acquisition of Ritchie Products Ltd, a well-established UK homebrew wholesaler with a fantastic portfolio branded products. This acquisition was born from a great and longstanding relationship fostered between Ritchies and Bevie for over 20 years.
2023
Bevie Handcraft merges it's UK and European warehouses to one 35,000 sq ft site in Deeside, Wales, for a more streamlined and efficient operation.