Speight's

Speight's is a brewery in Dunedin, New Zealand. It is famous for its promotional branding based on being 'a real southern man' and being 'the pride of the south'.

History

Speights was founded by James Speight, Charles Greenslade, and William Dawson. Speight's was first brewed on 4 April 1876 in Dunedin at the present Rattray St site. Since then the Speight's brand has been firmly planted in the deep south of New Zealand.

The Speight's brand was removed in August 1960 and replaced with the Lucky brand. However, the public response was less than favourable, so the Speight's brand was brought back into production in October of that year.

Speight's distinctive label features three eight-pointed stars. These stars come from both the original provincial arms of Otago, and the fact that Speights was awarded gold medals at the 1877 Brewery awards in three different countries.

Brands

Speight's Gold Medal Ale is the traditional beer of students at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. While marketed as a 'Gold Medal Ale', Speight's is actually a New Zealand draught style beer, brewed using lager yeast and lagering techniques.

Traditionally a very regional brew, the wild popularity of the "Southern Man" series of advertisements has led to Speight's undergoing something of a boom and it can now be found throughout the country.

The Speight's brewery also makes Speight's Old Dark, and the Speights Craft Range of handmade beer, including Distinction Ale, Porter, Pilsner, Pale Ale, and Harvest Gold, but none of these comes close to its Gold Medal Ale in popularity.

Speight's has also introduced Speight's Summit, a lager brewed with all natural ingredients, with the slogan being, "Don't mess with nature".

Marketing

Amongst many marketing angles, the 'Southern man' campaign has been significantly popular and long running. One television advertisement featured the Cardrona Hotel pub. Speights later opened a loose replica of this building in Mt Eden, Auckland as part of its marketing scheme.

On 16 April 2007 Speight's announced the Speight's Great Beer Delivery via Samoa, Panama, the Bahamas and New York to London.

Last year Speight's received more than 500 emails for New Zealanders in the UK missing Speight's.

Speight's has used the slogan "Pride of the south" for many years.

Trivia

Since a fire destroyed the Dunedin bottling and canning plant (now the site of a department store) Speight's bottling plant (for its stubbies) is in Auckland, New Zealand. It is felt by some Southerners that this should be located in the south, rather than in the north.

Packaged Speights (bottles and cans) beer is brewed in Auckland and Christchurch.

At the site of their Dunedin plant the company has installed a tap that pumps water up from a spring deep below the brewery, thus providing fresh, pure water free of charge. This tap was at the centre of an April Fool's joke in 1998 when the Otago Daily Times said that, just for that day, Speights beer would flow, free of charge, from that tap.