WA brewer Good Drinks Australia toasts strong year at Fremantle flagship as East Coast venues find their feet

Gage Roads brewer Good Drinks Australia has booked unaudited pre-tax earnings of $5.3 million for the first half of the financial year, boosted by its flagship Fremantle venue, as East Coast locations find their feet. The result was down on the $6.1m it reported in the first half of financial year 2023, but managing director John Hoedemaker said it was due to reduced operations at its new Matso’s Sunshine Coast venue and a one-off adjustment of about $1.2m which inflated earnings last year. “The underlying metrics of our business (is that) revenue is actually growing at about 7 per cent and we’ve been able to manage our cost of production and maintain them at similar levels,” he said. Asked if there were concerns around profitability, Mr Hoedemaker said: “No not at all, we’re expecting the full year to be an uplift on the previous year.” “We’re expecting the second-half to be much more profitable than it was last year,” he said. In a trading update on Wednesday, the company — also behind the Matso’s and Atomic brands — said it had “record trading days” at its Fremantle flagship Gage Roads during the first half of the year. Mr Hoedemaker said the venue was “certainly contributing strongly to the earnings of our business”. The venue’s pre-tax earnings for the first half of 2024 were up $500,000 for the period. “The venue is just growing from strength to strength, it’s become a a very popular and wonderfully iconic venue for people of Perth, but also people travelling to Perth,” Mr Hoedemaker said. “There’s definitely a feeling that people have less discretionary income to spend . . . but we’re not really seeing that at Gage Roads Fremantle. “If you have a great offering, great service then there’s always opportunity for people to take a night or two out of their week to go and enjoy themselves.” Overall earnings from the hospitality side were down by $300,000 due to weaker performance from its Atomic Beer venue in NSW and reduced operations at Matso’s Sunshine Coast in Eumundi, which was previously Joe’s Waterhole. The Sunshine Coast venue was opened in December last year following six months of renovations, with Mr Hoedemaker saying weather delays pushed back the opening date by about a month. Good Drinks said strong initial trade from the venue gave the company confidence it would meet earnings expectations for the financial year. Mr Hoedemaker added the company was exploring one additional East Coast venue to support the Gage Roads brand.