Keeping Lion brewing for another 100 years

Lion’s $250M facility in Auckland delivers a new era in best-in-class brewing and beverage manufacturing for New Zealand.

After more than 100 years at their Newmarket site in central Auckland, Lion had outgrown their existing facilities. Their decision to relocate and consolidate their Auckland operations created a rare opportunity to purpose-build a modern, world-class facility that would take them into the future.

At 16.7ha, it’s three times bigger than the former site in the central city and incorporates a brew house, wines and spirits manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and distribution capability.

The sheer size of the development, coupled with a tight budget and tricky transition phase demanded innovative, cost-effective solutions to meet Lion’s ‘first brew’ deadline.

We led the project from concept to commissioning. Our approach focused on extensive planning, design and procurement early-on to ensure a well-defined project that would meet the challenging requirements.

The 55,000m² building features a large, curved, outward-leaning glass façade, allowing the public to view the inner workings of the brew house. The manufacturing and packaging hall incorporates a lightweight steel structure with minimal columns to maximise storage space and allow flexible layout of equipment. Existing assets and recycled materials were used to reduce capital expenditure, and new, modern equipment installed to improve operational efficiency, and reduce energy and water use.

With 20% increased production capacity, the new facility is helping Lion continue to grow and deliver New Zealand’s best-loved alcoholic beverage brands for the next century and beyond.

Awards

• Illuminating Engineering Society of Australia 2011, Commended
• New Zealand (IESANZ) National Lighting Awards 2011, Commended
• ACENZ Awards of Excellence 2011, Silver
• Project Management Institute NZ Project of the Year Award, 2011
• Property Council NZ Trends Industrial Property Award 2011, Excellence