QHA-Review_Sept_Digital

INSIGHTS
QHA REVIEW | 30
West End is Catchment’s heart and soul – our
story, memorabilia and everything is all about this
streetscape. Our beers are even named after famous
roads here, like Vulture and Hoogley Street.
“Our tanks are all on-site, and we’ve got about 6000
litres worth of them out the back. Our pale ale is the
original recipe from the first brewery in Brisbane – the
Old West End Brewery. It remains our number one
selling beer.
“During Covid, we didn’t have any beer in cans, so
when the doors were shut, we had to quickly switch
out to a retail footprint. We were lucky enough to
get our cans into bottle shops around Brisbane,
and thankfully we’ve been able to continue that
development,” he said.
This quick conversion to cans allowed Catchment
to initially distribute its beers to four local stores in
West End before spreading to over 200 stores across
Queensland. As the craft brewery started to take off,
its small on-site brewing operation was unable to
keep up with the high demand, so a bigger brewery
was purchased.
Catchment’s first of many acquisitions was Fortitude
Brewing Co, a large and idyllic craft brewery in Mount
Tambourine with a brewing capacity of around 60,000
litres. This new venue was ten times bigger then West
End’s and allowed the company to ramp up their
beer production even further. While Catchment had
originally bought Fortitude for more capacity, Matt said
they started to fall in love with the brand as well.
“Fortitude is one of the original craft brewing
companies, and started from a bunch of school dads
and overall good guys. From that, we also picked up
Noisy Miner, which is a really cool experimental brand,
in addition to Roots and Leaves, which is a pretty
good ginger beer.
“Recently we came across a Ballistic Brewing
acquisition as well. We sort of helped them out of the
administration process they were in, so we’re now a
major shareholder in that business which comes with
five venues.
“Ballistic is really popular, it’s got a good Queensland
following, a strong supporter base and a great growth
story that just went a little too quickly for them. It
brings us more brands and brewing capacity while also
tripling our existing business from an availability point
of view,” he said.
Catchment has acquired six breweries since it was
founded in 2015, and still shows no signs of slowing
down. As part of its growth phase, the company is in
the process of carefully distributing roles and costs
through its many brewing operations so it can continue
to expand in a sustainable way.
As someone who has led the brand through many
uncertain times, Matt said he has learnt to look forward
to the future and believes that there’s no point harping
on about what you can’t control.
“Everyone’s been through a horrid time, but it’s how
you come out of the other end that matters. We
could have just shut the doors and said, ‘Bugger it,
it’s too hard, I’ve got no customers and no money,’
but we persevered and came out of Covid a stronger
business, which allowed us to have cash in the bank.
“Now I’ve got six breweries to run, so it’s a pretty
steep learning curve, but that’s the great thing about
hospitality – the variety. I’ve worked in pubs, clubs,
bars, resorts, casinos and breweries, and while they’re
all different, they’re also all the same because of their
focus on customers.
“It was amazing when the doors first reopened at pubs
and we saw how busy we were. It just shows you that
people are the centre of any business. The more you
look after your customers and your staff, the better you
are going to be,” he said.
Similar to many career paths in the hospitality industry,
Matt worked in all sorts of weird and wonderful
jobs before leading the Catchment brand to where
it is today. After his first position at a pub in Port
Macquarie, he took the first TAFE hospitality course
that was offered in Australia. From there, Matt worked
internationally, with his experiences ranging from
cooking breakfast in the Greek islands to telling
tourists where to see the pyramids in Egypt.
When he came back to Australia, he worked at a
resort in Kooralbyn before joining Conrad Jupiters
Casino and working in one of the biggest food and
beverage operations in the southern hemisphere. After
running Ayers Rock Resort for two years, Matt said
he was lured back to Queensland by the Coles Liquor
Group, who were just starting their pubs journey.
“After Coles, I got sick of working in corporate
environments, so I went out on my own as a developer
and teamed up with the Ray Group down at Salt
Village. When that project was all finished and sold,
they put me onto some developers based in Sydney
who bought the old Sea Brae Hotel at Redcliffe and
knocked it down.
“For the next seven years we put 200 units on that
site in addition to a big Caribbean-themed hotel and
a conference centre. After selling that real estate, we
sold the project, and then that was it. I retired for three
years and did a bit of travelling and a lot of fishing.
“It was then when I got a few phone calls from some
mates who owned this little brewery in West End and
weren’t too sure what to do with it. They needed my
help, so I agreed to come on a short-term role, but I
really started enjoying it.