For plumber Peter Hodyl, a few home-brewed beers with his mate, Geoff Pehlam, inspired a business venture that has since become a national franchise.
For plumber Peter Hodyl, a few home-brewed beers with his mate, Geoff Pehlam, inspired a business venture that has since become a national franchise.
In 1998, the pair established their brew-your-own beer facility, U-Brewit, in Malaga. Since then, they have franchised the business in Perth and interstate, with five stores to open in Queensland and New South Wales in 2007.
Mr Hodyl said the lack of self-brewing facilities locally was a major motivation for the business.
“I suppose it was sort of a lifestyle change we were looking for. We thought the opportunity was there,” he said.
Mr Hodyl said the business was established without any intention of creating a franchise structure.
“Originally, because our business was going pretty well, we had people coming to us wanting to do the same thing,” he told WA Business News.
“We initially had a naming rights agreement and then, after two or three stores, we were advised that it could be viewed as a franchise and we had to abide by those rules. There was no grand vision of building a franchise; it was more a case of necessity than an original goal.” he said.
The first U-Brewit franchise was established in Geelong in 2001, followed by stores in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
After a slow start, the company has recently signed on franchises in Cairns, Tweed Heads, Nerang, Sunshine Coast and west Gosford, and is in the process of setting up a warehousing facility on the east coast to supply U-Brewit’s ingredients.
The recent flurry of interest has its origins in a business and franchising expo in Sydney in 2002 at which U-Brewit presented its concept, although the results are only being felt now.
“There was a massive amount of interest but no-one made the decision to move forward,” Mr Hodyl said.
“It was the only time we’d gone out aggressively to an open market.
“Part of the plan was [that] we knew the east coast, for whatever reason, was a little bit slow to look really seriously at the concept.
“Normally the view from the east coast is they think ‘if it’s not here already, why isn’t it?’”
Mr Hodyl said he was confident that once customers in the eastern states could see how the business operated, it would create a growth source.
“We would expect, over the next five years, to be twice as busy each year,” he said.
Mr Hodyl said the appeal of U-Brewit is was the opportunity to purchase any style of beer without being restricted by price.
“Once people taste the product and realise that it’s a commercial quality beer..they’re really enthusiastic about using our services. They can drink any beer they like without being dictated by their wallet,” he said.
