Despite earning top honours on the world stage, many New Zealand craft spirits face a difficult future at home. Spirits writer Tash McGill explores the economics behind the price of craft, why small producers struggle to compete with global brands, and what consumers can do if they want local distilleries to thrive.
Picture this: you walk into your local bottle shop looking for a New Zealand gin you’ve bought before. You know exactly where it used to sit on the shelf. Only this time it’s gone.
Not because the distillery closed. Not because the gin wasn’t any good. In fact, it may have been one of the best products in the country.
It’s gone because making exceptional spirits at small scale is expensive, retail shelf space is getting tighter, and consumers facing their own cost pressures are increasingly reaching for cheaper alternatives.
That’s the uncomfortable reality facing many of New Zealand’s craft distilleries. After the boom years of 2019 to 2022, the market is contracting. The question is no longer which brands make the best gin. It’s which brands can survive the economics of making it.
Why great gin costs more
There’s a version of this story that’s easier to tell. Local craft distiller, brilliant product, fighting the good fight against the global giants, just needs your support to survive. Buy local. Be the difference.
That story is true, as far as it goes. What it leaves out is the part where small-scale production is a capital-intensive, margin-thin way to make a consumable product. And the premium you pay for a New Zealand craft spirit isn’t primarily a mark of quality. It’s a mark of what it costs to make small batches of anything.
Scale is what makes production more affordable. We know it’s why a litre of milk from a major dairy co-operative costs less than a litre of milk from a boutique artisan dairy, why a pair of shoes from a mass manufacturer costs less than a pair from a bespoke designer, and why your supermarket beer costs less than the local brewery down the road.
The efficiencies that drive unit cost down – bulk ingredient purchasing, continuous production runs, shared infrastructure, amortised equipment costs – simply don’t exist at 500-litre still sizes and runs of a few hundred cases. Not to mention how much harder you have to work for the shelf space.
So when you’re paying $90 for a NZ craft gin versus $49 for an imported one, the gap isn’t usually about what’s in the bottle. It’s about the economics of where it came from. After all, Bombay Sapphire, Tanqueray and Gordon’s are crowd-pleasing, consistent products.
That matters for what happens next.
The shelf space problem
Alcohol retail in this country is consolidating. The major chains are under their own margin pressures, and the rational response to keeping the lights on is to stock what sells reliably.
The mid-shelf, which used to carry interesting local products while they found their audience, is narrowing. A craft gin moving six bottles a month doesn’t hold its position against a global brand moving sixty.
Retailers are making difficult decisions too. Glengarry, one of New Zealand’s largest specialist liquor retailers, reduced its gin range by more than 150 SKUs during 2025. For buyers managing finite shelf space, every new listing increasingly needs to justify its place
The buyer might genuinely prefer the local product. But preference doesn’t always win against sales velocity.
The pressure is already showing. Across the sector, several New Zealand gin brands are retrenching, changing hands or exiting altogether. Several distilleries have closed, entered liquidation, or been put up for sale in the past 18 months.
While every business has its own story, the broader trend points in the same direction: this is becoming a harder market to survive in.
Award-winning doesn’t guarantee survival
Here’s the twist: this isn’t happening because New Zealand craft spirits can’t compete on quality.
In fact, New Zealand distillers continue to punch well above their weight internationally. At this month’s International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC), Clarity Distilling Company’s Navy Gin achieved one of the highest scores in the Classic Gin category, while Coromandel Distilling Company’s Awildian Coromandel Mānuka Gin was recognised among the leading wood-finished gins. Across the IWSC, World Gin Awards, LA Spirits Awards and San Francisco World Spirits Competition, New Zealand producers continue to earn recognition alongside some of the most respected distilleries in the world.
The challenge isn’t quality. It’s economics.
This is where the rubber hits the road — or perhaps the ice hits the glass.
If the local brand were priced at $49, it would probably sell more. But it can’t be priced at $49. Not on a small production run. Not without the producer working for less than minimum wage.
The price is what it has to be, given what it costs to make.
And that price, in a tightening market where consumers are increasingly cost-aware and the cheaper option is sitting right next to it on the shelf, is becoming harder to defend. Even when the bottle has a 95-point rating and recognition as one of the world’s best gins.
Some of the brands working hardest to stay available right now are among the best in the world, made right here in New Zealand by skilled people producing remarkable spirits.
The ‘buy less, buy better’ challenge
There’s an answer to this, and it’s one you’ve probably heard before: buy less, buy better. Choose quality over quantity. Spend the $90 and drink less of it.
It’s a real answer. It’s also a significant change in consumer behaviour.
Buying less but better means genuinely changing the way you shop, not just feeling good about the occasional craft purchase alongside your regular routine. It means the $90 gin is your gin, not a special-occasion supplement. It means treating every occasion a little more like a special occasion.
Most people who say they value craft, local production and independent producers do not actually shop this way most of the time. That’s the reality of tight budgets, changing priorities and busy lives.
But “support local” as a sentiment and “support local” as a consistent purchasing behaviour are different things. The economics of small craft production depend on the latter.
There’s also a harder question underneath the “buy NZ made” argument: does NZ-made actually stack up on its own merits?
The results suggest yes. At their best, New Zealand distilleries aren’t asking for sympathy purchases. They’re producing spirits that genuinely belong among the world’s finest.
What makes a real difference
If there’s a NZ brand you genuinely care about, the most useful thing you can do is not simply hope it stays on the shelf. Here’s where to put your energy.
Buy direct when you can: Most independent producers have an online store or will take direct orders. The margin difference between a sale through a retailer and a sale through their own website is significant. You’re not just buying a bottle – you’re becoming their most valuable customer.
Ask for it: At your local bottle shop. At your favourite bar. A buyer who hears the same brand name from multiple customers pays attention. So does a venue manager building a cocktail list. Your request carries more weight than you might think.
Talk about it: The brands with the smallest marketing budgets are often the ones relying almost entirely on word of mouth. If you love what they’re making, tell people.
Consider memberships, subscriptions or case deals: Predictable revenue is the difference between a brand that can plan and a brand that can’t.
And if you’re standing in front of a shelf wondering where to start, choose the bottle with the gold medal on it. There’s a good chance you’ll be supporting one of New Zealand’s global spirits success stories.
Because if current trends continue, some of the country’s best drinks won’t disappear because they weren’t good enough.
They’ll disappear because making world-class spirits in a small market is harder than most of us realise.
Tash McGill is a local spirits writer, chairperson of the New Zealand Whiskey Association and an international spirits judge.
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