PEOPLE
TOM LANE LION, A HISTORY BY PAUL GOLDSMITH
international brand partner.
Perks of the job And the job certainly has its perks, with its open bar being open every evening, he says. Yet surprisingly, Tom drinks less working for Lion than he did at Chapman Tripp, he says. “The Christmas parties at Chapman Tripp were legendary. Having heard about Lion’s Christmas party taking over the Crown Casino and featuring Jimmy Barnes, I thought the social side of working at a brewery would be another level again. But while the social side is great, perhaps because drinks are readily available, I just have less
In 1868, Sir Douglas Myers’ great great uncle, Louis Ehrenfried, a German-Jewish immigrant, established the Phoenix Brewery in Thames. The brewery prospered but the ambitious Ehrenfried decided to chase the larger Auckland market. In 1885, he bought the Albert Brewery in Queen Street and many hotels followed. By 1895 Ehrenfried’s young nephew Arthur Myers was effectively managing the enterprise. He engineered the 1897 merger of Ehrenfried Brothers with John Logan Campbell’s liquor and hotel interests to form Campbell & Ehrenfried Ltd. Louis Ehrenfried died in February 1897, bequeathing his fortune largely to Arthur. Arthur and his manager, Alfred Bankart, were primary movers in the formation of New Zealand Breweries in 1923, a new public company which combined more than a dozen breweries across the country. Campbell & Ehrenfried’s brewery assets were folded into the new enterprise. In 1933, Arthur’s son Kenneth Myers took the helm of Campbell & Ehrenfried, which continued to import liquor and manage a chain of hotels. Under Kenneth’s stewardship, over the next three decades the family business remained substantial, but it steadily became less profitable. Kenneth’s son, Douglas, was born in 1938. In 1971, Douglas sold most of the company’s hotels to New Zealand Breweries (later renamed Lion Breweries) and focused the company’s efforts on New Zealand Wines and Spirits, a joint venture with New Zealand Breweries. The following year Myers took full control of Campbell & Ehrenfried by buying all the shares from his relatives, the John Logan Campbell Estate and some former employees. Myers transformed his half share in New Zealand Wines and Spirits into a controlling stake of Lion Breweries, then one of the country’s 10 largest businesses. In 1988, Myers merged Lion Breweries with LD Nathan, a supermarket, general retailing and property conglomerate, to form Lion Nathan Ltd. By the time Myers sold his shareholding to the Japanese brewer Kirin in 1998, just prior to his 60th birthday, Lion Nathan was established as Australasia’s number two brewery and was an early pioneer in China. Myers retired as chairman in 2001, and was knighted in 2010.
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“The Christmas parties at Chapman Tripp were legendary. Having heard about Lion’s Christmas party taking over the Crown Casino and featuring Jimmy Barnes, I thought the social side of working at a brewery would be another level again” desire to indulge. “Lion also champions a responsible drinking and moderation culture. Aside from the obvious ethical considerations, promoting excessive or irresponsible consumption in such a regulated industry would be the quickest way to go out of business. Instead, the company really promotes a healthy balance and positive drinking culture focused on quality over quantity.” He does, however, recall his first week on