Craig Williams: Maketū Pies General Manager on the first hot pie vending machine in Rotorua

A Kiwi classic with added convenience. 

Rotorua has its first hot pie vending machine, stocked with the famous Maketū Pies. 

All ten varieties are on offer in the machine, which sits just outside the I-site and besides the Redwoods Treewalk. 

General Manager Craig Williams told Heather du Plessis-Allan the site was selected for visibility, with around 700,000 tourists passing through per day. 

He says a lot of international tourists are looking for a hot pie as part of their Kiwi experience, and the novelty of the machine will capture attention.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quite a neat idea for You's first hot pie vending
machine has launched, stocked with the famous Markeetoo pies and
Craig Williams is Market two Pie's general manager and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Morning Craig, Good morning Heather, how are you well?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Thanks mate? Now we're talking about this being the first
in rot is the first in the country or we
already got these things out there?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Now it's not the first in the country. The Tilt
guys have been developing these things for a couple of
years and this sort of, I guess the final version
I've had out and about around some sites in Auckland.
It's a bit of a sort of a commercial trial
on construction sites and the university campus and places like that,

(00:38):
and it was with relative success. So we're excited to
pick up the first one in the Bay of Plenty
because that's how you know, our foundational stomping ground.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah. So how does it work? Do you have to
restock the pies every day?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah? So we're working with the Road rua in Dead Guy.
So there's the team that run the eye sights and
the tourism down there in Rhode Rue and their team
are trained and ready to keep the pies stocked and
fresh and hot all day. So yeah, working with them
essentially to handle that. And it's obviously the quality of

(01:13):
delivery of the quality is really important to us, So
you know, training that team and making sure that they
are ready to go and top quality has been the
key thing to the rollout.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
What's the attraction? Like, why do people want to get
their pie out of a vending machine instead of out
of a dairy well?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I think, you know, given the location with this one
is the tree Walk, for us, it was about you know,
visibility of the brand. It's a bit of a novelty,
I guess, you know. We have a site there that
gets about seven hundred thousand tourists through a day, a
lot of international tourists, and you know, for us, we're
really proud to be carrying our brand there and something

(01:53):
that will capture people's attention. And a lot of those
international tourists are looking for a hot pie as part
of their key we expect they.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Are they coming to the country wanting a pie? Have
they heard this is our cuisine?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
I don't know, it's surprising how much of it again,
I think there's there's a number of things that New
Zealand is well known for around the world, and the
meat pie is definitely one of them.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
How good is that, Craig listen, thank you very much,
appreciate it. You look after yourself. I hope it goes well.
That's Craig Williams Michel Two Pies general manager. I mean,
you know, if you know anything about the vending machines
and places like Japan, they just pump out absolutely everything.
So if the idea catches on, you even know might
be getting a pair of socks out of it. Next minute.
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(02:38):
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