Sawmill Brewery Owner on Perseverance, Surviving Disaster & Building Culture: Mike Sutherland

Mike Sutherland bought a tiny brewery in Leigh with very little brewing experience. Now, Sawmill produces almost 2 million litres a year and employs 50+ people. Mike breaks down the journey from learning to brew from a textbook, competing against Lion and DB's exclusive contracts, and building the business through farmers markets and word of mouth. We cover the 1am phone call that changed everything - "the brewery is on fire" - and how they kept growing while rebuilding everything from scratch. The fire destroyed one end of the building, but Mike never considered quitting. They brewed at 15 different breweries during the rebuild and came back stronger. We cover the morning tea rule (everyone stops at 10am, no phones allowed), why they focus on bars and restaurants over supermarkets, and the B-Corp certification that proves you can run a sustainable business with a sustainable bottom line. Plus why Mike thinks New Zealand needs to keep control of its food and beverage assets instead of selling them overseas. From reluctant employee to brewery owner employing 50 people, sometimes you have to take the leap to find what you're meant to do. Find more info on Sawmill: Website: Instagram: Amy from has come on as a sponsor of Keep The Change to help people with their financial planning. Stuck? Find Amy : amy@levridge.co.nz Instagram: Website: Generate are supporting my vision to improve the financial literacy of 100,000 kiwis by sponsoring Keep The Change. Cheers Generate. Head to to find out more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Sawmill Brewery Owner on Perseverance, Surviving Disaster & Building Culture: Mike Sutherland online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Sawmill Brewery Owner on Perseverance, Surviving Disaster & Building Culture: Mike Sutherland is an episode from Keep The Change by nextAdvisory.

This episode is 1:03:40 long.

This episode was published on Apr 29, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Keep The Change when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.