Financial backing from Mighty Craft a boost for Brisbane’s Ballistic Beer and Slipstream Brewing

Unlikely as it may seem, there’s a multi-million dollar common thread linking two of Brisbane’s best craft beer makers.

A COMMON THREAD

Unlikely as it may seem, there’s a common thread linking two of Brisbane’s best craft beer makers despite the fact that they are natural competitors.

Over in Yeerongpilly, husband-and-wife team Deale and Elisa Stanley-Hunt have just unveiled a new $1.5m redevelopment of their Slipstream Brewing venue.

The brewpub, launched in 2017 in an old warehouse, has expanded to include a large beer garden and it can now accommodate 250 customers.

A smoker and pizza oven have been added to replace the old food trucks on site and beer production capacity has also lifted.

Meanwhile, practically a stone’s throw away, Dave Kitchen is also working on growing his brew empire.

Kitchen, who started operating Ballistic Beer at Salisbury in 2016, has added venues in the West End and Springfield since then.

He’s now also on the verge of his first expansion outside of south east Queensland with the imminent acquisition of two existing pubs in North Queensland.

Both businesses enjoy the financial backing of Australia’s only listed craft industry accelerator Mighty Craft, formerly known as Founders First.

Launched in 2017, Melbourne-based Mighty Craft provides debt and equity funding for the craft brewers and distilleries across the country. It also dispenses fee-for-service support to help with back end logistical challenges.

“We love the vibrant nature of the craft community up in Queensland. We’re really well-placed up there,’’ boss Mark Haysman told City Beat.

Ballistic Brewery owner David Kitchen

In the case of Slipstream, Mighty Craft just ponied up the full $1.5m for the brewpub’s makeover. They also handle the sales, distribution and marketing, with the company’s critically-acclaimed brews now accessible in bottle shops along the eastern seaboard.

Might Craft acquired a 45 per cent stake in the business in 2019, a figure that’s set to grow to 61 per cent shortly.

It’s a slightly different picture with Ballistic, where Mighty Craft have just a 10 per cent equity stake in the business and won’t be funding the push up north.

Kitchen, who formerly worked for DFAT in Hong Kong, launched the business with start-up funding from about a dozen wealthy corporate finance mates there. They still control a 41 per cent holding.

But, like the Stanley-Hunts, Kitchen is a big fan of Mighty Craft’s logistics support. He said it makes no sense for small brewers to each have the costly burden of sales reps spread out across the country.

“We’ve had massive success in the national bottle shop chains and I certainly attribute that to guidance from Mighty Craft,’’ Kitchen said.

Mighty Craft continues to lose money, suffering $8.5m in red ink last year, but revenues are growing strongly and it’s aiming to break even in the second half of next year.

THE TRAVELLING JACKAROO

He calls himself the Travelling Jackaroo and he’s about to embark on one heckuva trip to raise money for charity.

Sunshine Coast teenager Sam Hughes plans to spend the next year or so driving right around Australia on a restored 50-year-old orange tractor pulling a custom-built 7m trailer full of gear.

With a tinnie atop of the Chamberlain tractor and part of an old plane fuselage resting on the roof of the trailer, he’ll be hard to miss as he chugs along at a maximum of 50km per hour.

Hughes, who lives on a farm at Maleny and just wrapped up high school, plans to leave on or about March 15, heading north to start his epic journey covering about 13,500km.

He expects to stop along the way to work as a jackaroo and to raise money for The Royal Flying Doctors, bullying awareness group Dolly’s Dream and the Lights on the Hill Trucking Memorial.

So what do his parents make of it? “They think I’m nuts to put it lightly but they’re sort of accepting of it now,’’ he told City Beat.

You can follow his journey at https://www.facebook.com/thetravellingjackaroo/

FINAL STRETCH OF ROAD

It’s a bit awkward having a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new road.

But the bigshots at Springfield managed to do exactly that last week, slicing a bit of tape held up by two construction workers to unveil the final 1km stretch of Brookwater Drive.

The year-long $10m project links the golf-focused residential suburb of Brookwater with the centre of Springfield, providing easier access to shops and the train station.

Springfield boss Maha Sinnathamby said the cost was split between his group and Chinese development giant R & F Property Australia.

R&F announced plans in early 2017 to build a staged $6.3bn project with a whopping 10,000 units over the next 20 years.

Their “Central Gardens’’ project, set to be built on a 31.5ha site near the train station, has suffered delays since then.

But $20m worth of siteworks have now been completed and the first apartments are set to be released for sale in the second quarter of this year.

CASHING OUT

Is it the end of the road for the folding stuff?

As electronic payments increasingly become the norm, a new survey from MoneyTransfers.com released this week found a third of Aussies would welcome the transition to a fully cashless society.

The trend was already well advanced before COVID but the pandemic has only accelerated the move away from banknotes and coins for obvious hygienic reasons.

Close Up of Australian Cash Notes and Coins

The research, based on the views of more than 1,000 respondents, found just over half had paid in cash less often during the pandemic.

A dwindling number of high street bank branches and ATMs has also driven the change.

As keen as we are to embrace easier and safer ways to pay, Australia only ranked 10th in the global survey for the percentage of the population keen to get rid of cash.

India and Malaysia topped the list, with a whopping 79 per cent and 65 per cent respectively hoping to go fully cash-free.