Company: Holgate Brewhouse Pty Ltd
Project title: Brewery Discovery Centre and Brewery Expansion
Category: Tourism
The company
Holgate Brewhouse is a family-owned craft brewery located at the historic Keating Hotel in Woodend, Victoria. Since 1999, this 100% independent brewery has produced artisan craft beers showcasing creativity and innovation.
Today, Holgate offers a broad range of handcrafted beers to the global marketplace, including easy-drinking English ales, hoppy pales and big and bold IPAs.
The project
We were working on Holgate’s application for a Future Industries Manufacturing Program (FIMP) grant when RDV Bendigo introduced them to a second relevant grant opportunity — the Regional Tourism Infrastructure Fund (RTIF).
Our application for the FIMP grant was to be a relatively straightforward beverage manufacturing project submission which could deliver $500,000 in support for a proposed brewery extension. But the RTIF grant presented an opportunity that was too enticing to forgo: a $1.5 million prize, three times larger than could be won via the FIMP.
The challenge
Although the RTIF program offered a significantly larger grant reward than we had initially anticipated, there was also added complexity. To be eligible for the RTIF grant, we needed a tourism angle that demonstrated how the project contributed to the bolstering of the visitor economy — quite a different vision to the brewery expansion submission that we were already working on.
The grant application required us to summarise a long-term vision and break it down into a progression of clear and logical steps. We also needed to seek third-party validation to substantiate and verify claims being made about the benefits of the project to the region’s economy. Having the right application strategy would be critical.
Our solutions
We set up a collaborative meeting between the Holgate family, RDV Bendigo and GrantHelper to evaluate the two grant opportunities and decide on a pathway forward.
As it wasn’t clear which program would yield a result, Holgate decided to hedge and apply for both funds. While commercially appealing, this strategy also carried some risk, as submitting a substandard application for either grant due to a lack of focus was sure to result in a disappointing outcome. To mitigate this, GrantHelper formulated a strategy which covered the original scope for the FIMP grant submission, while simultaneously building upon it and producing a quality submission for the RTIF program.
This approach meant Holgate were set up for the best chance at success with at least one or, ideally, both submissions. We then worked closely with the Holgate family to bring together a compelling business case, enlisting extensive guidance from RDV Bendigo to ensure our RTIF submission was closely aligned to the program objectives.
We then crafted submission responses covering visitor economy impact, hospitality impact, job creation, commercial outcomes and broader regional benefits.
Outcomes
GrantHelper was delighted to achieve the best possible outcome for the Holgate family, who were offered support from both grant programs — a total of $2 million. However, as the grants were not eligible to be used in conjunction with one another, the family was obliged to choose one only, opting for the commercial impact of $1.5 million from the RTIF fund.
This grant helped to accelerate the implementation of a long-term business vision which included commissioning of the expanded Brewery and establishment of a Brewery Discovery Centre with tasting room.
Simultaneously, the refurbishment of the historic hotel accommodation and its surrounding streetscape, along with the founding of the Calder Corridor Craft Beer Trail also complemented the efforts of the Holgate family, bringing increased visitor appeal to the region.
“Steve’s assistance in securing the Vic Government RTIF grant of $1.5 million was invaluable to the Holgate Brewhouse expansion project. He regularly drove from Melbourne and spent many hours with us at Woodend to understand our business and our goals and craft our application. He collaborated with Bendigo RDV on our behalf. His detailed and well-organised approach of guiding us through the process relieved the pressure upon us in achieving a successful outcome.”
Natasha Holgate – Co-Owner, Holgate Brewhouse
What made this grant project unique?
Holgate’s RTIF submission required us to lay out a long-term business plan, clearly communicate the strategic vision, and present each step of the journey in individual stages, each of which needed to align to the objectives of the grant program.
The Holgate Brewhouse Historic Hotel and Brewery Discovery Centre was more than a tourism development project — a huge component was expanding the brewery operation behind the tourism front-end.
Weaving together the relationships between these integral yet disparate business elements in a concise, well-articulated manner required creative and analytical thinking, and a thorough review was undertaken to ensure each attribute received the attention it needed in our submission.
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