An Aussie and Kiwi share house in London with a built-in bar and ‘party atmosphere’ set in motion a 30-year hospitality career which has taken Marc across the globe meeting craft beer pioneers and renown sportsmen.
“Home Brewing” began as a social pastime for Marc – little did he think that one day he would be microbrewing over a million and a half litres of beer a year back home in New Zealand.
After 12 years of mastering his ‘craft’ and trying his hand with German schnapps – Marc returned home from Europe in 1989 and opened New Zealand’s first microbrewery in the Hororata Hotel which was built by McCashin’s.
More recently, Marc alongside his partner Delene launched Latitude 37 Distilling in Mount Maunganui to produce their very own premium craft spirits – including a ginger and rhubarb gin, ‘Dark Knight’ Black Vodka, Manuka Honey Infused Rum and much more!
With ambition to scale the operation internationally, Marc saw Qoin as the perfect platform to fast track his products to the market to achieve his goals.
“I see Qoin as a great opportunity to target an international market and reach Asian countries like Singapore without foreign transaction fees,” he said.
“Qoin’s global expansion is enticing for my brand, and I know there’s plenty of people looking to utilise their Qoin”.
Prior to Christmas, Marc took over the ‘Cocktail Merchant’ – a premium online liquor store that offers the finest quality liqueurs, specialty spirits and cocktail mixers from New Zealand producers to the Hospitality Trade.
Established in Queenstown in 2005, Cocktail Merchant has a longstanding reputation in New Zealand with a loyal customer base including pubs and restaurants which he’s hoping to stock with his own brands from Latitude 37 Distilling.
Since acquiring Cocktail Merchant Marc has given the website a fresh look and repositioned the business to be a tequila and rum specialist.
“Tequila is the next on trend beverage, good quality sipping tequila is growing in popularity and will overtake gin which has been in demand for the past few years”.
Marc and Delene have been a part of the Qoin community for over a year after meeting with Qoin Agent Tony Brooks.
“I initially used Qoin as a savings mechanism until I was ready to implement it into Cocktail Merchant, and I’ve now gained some traction which has facilitated new sales,” he said.
“There’s a big Qoin Community in New Zealand and I’m finding a lot of new Merchants who are reaching out to me which is great – I’ve done half a dozen Qoin transactions just in the past week”.
Cocktail Merchant brings premium liquor at wholesale prices to hundreds of businesses across New Zealand and overseas.