Maketu Pies factory. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
Maketū locals are pleased their famous pies are back on the menu, saying the business is an asset to the small community.
Maketū Pies has been bought by a catering company after a two-week liquidation process.
The pie shop has been a major employer for the small Bay of Plenty town for many years, and locals were worried about what would happen if it shut altogether.
So what do these iconic pies, and the jobs they bring, mean to the community?
Maketū is a sleepy beachside town with only a few shops, and the pie factory is its pride and joy.
Local woman Jane Henry fondly remembered picking up boxes of 30 or 40 leftover pies from the factory for just $30.
Jane Henry outside her Maketū home. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
"Best thing ever when you've got teenage children in the school holidays ... and they're always hungry - the boys. So you buy a box of Maketū pies, put it in the fridge and the kids go from fridge to microwave, happy days."
The business has been a real asset to the small community, Henry said.
"Living rurally is hard, and having a business that employs that many people right here in a small village has been a very fortunate thing for the locals to have."
Robert Holmes has been living in Maketū for about 30 years, and said the pies were famous in the area.
He loved living in Maketū, and said it would not be the same without the pies.
"Look at it - beautiful eh? Beautiful weather, good scenery, good people. Of course this is our whenua here, so it'd be nowhere else but here and eat nothing else but Maketū pies," he said.
Robert Holmes at his home looking over the Maketū township. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
Despite the company being purchased, there could be some challenges ahead.
Some locals Checkpoint spoke to, who wanted to stay anonymous, felt the quality of the pies had gone downhill since the business changed hands in 2019.
And some people posting on local community Facebook pages felt the same way.
Grant Wilson owned the business for years with his wife Karen, after taking it over from his mother and sister.
Grant and Karen Wilson outside their Te Puke home. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
At its peak, they were exporting pies across the country and even to Australia, employing generations of locals along the way.
"In our heyday probably, 50 staff, and of them probably 30-40 of them would be from the village. So generations basically came through the business while we were there.
Wilson said as the business grew, it got harder to keep it profitable.
"Things just got tighter, more and more competition. Supermarkets wanted the prices very price-competitive. So they wanted it for next-to-nothing but they wanted the quality to go with it. It's very hard to do both.
"I'd hate to try do it with the price of meat today."
He had to put the business into liquidation in 2019 before it was bought by a new owner.
So he was especially sad to hear the business was in liquidation again, but he was not surprised.
An old photo of Grant and Karen with two workers at the Maketū Pies factory. Photo: RNZ / Luka Forman
"It's a tough world out there, it's not easy. And as I say there's a lot of competition out there, a lot of people make good pies."
He was hopeful the new owner, Montana Group, could make it work but said it would be hard work.
Its chief operating officer Lizzi Pearson said they had received a warm welcome from the Maketū team, and they could not wait to work alongside everyone.
Their immediate focus was on ensuring a seamless handover and maintaining Maketū Pies' high standards, Pearson said.
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