Hancocks Wine, Spirit and Beer Merchants of Grey Lynn is named as a creditor along with Northcote’s Canon New Zealand/Canon Finance, ACC, Auckland Council, Bank of New Zealand, Red and White Cellar, Gladfield Malt, Independent Liquor (NZ), Restaurant Hub, PwC, Foodstuffs North Island, Odyssey Wines, Altenzano Coffee, Manukau Enterprises, Windcave New Zealand, Avanti Finance, NZ Post, City Works Depot, Commercial Bay landlord Precinct Properties, Sky TV, UDC Finance and many others.

Brothers Beer and Brothers Beer Wholesale started operating in 2011 and 2016, managing a brewery and operating seven gastropub-style restaurants across Auckland in what were the good times last decade.

But then it struck financial trouble and the initial administrators’ report told how the business would cease operations at its many Brothers Beer and Juke Joint BBQ sites in Ōrākei, the City Works Depot, Onehunga and Birkenhead.

By that stage, the business had already ceased at Commercial Bay.

Pre-pandemic, Brothers Beer was popular and had expanded hospitality outlets, going from one to seven, that report said.

But when Covid hit, the brewer and pub manager could not operate those venues due to lockdowns, and that significantly hit their financial position.

Then inflation began to take its toll, creating further pressures as well as rising costs that hurt margins.

The PwC accountants talked to suppliers and the group’s secured lender. Non-performing hospitality sites were closed immediately and staff were redeployed where it was possible. Some redundancies were required, PwC said.