The Captain Cook Hotel is once again up for sale.
With a name arguably as well known as any other pub anywhere in the country, the recently renovated Cook (as it’s known to most students) should, it is hoped, be snapped up as quickly as possible.
ABC Business Sales, who are tasked with selling it, describe The Cook on their website as a “truly iconic New Zealand business and brand … with current yearly sales of well over $1 million.”
Jono Kennedy and Ricky Cockerill of ABC Business Sales say that the intention of the current owners was never to run the business in the long term, it was always to renovate and then sell soon afterwards.
Having bought the business in 2013, they immediately “undertook a multi-million dollar renovation to bring the business into the modern day,” Kennedy explained.
He said that the new look is “in line with how Otago University and the Dunedin City Council would like to see it as,” meaning a more responsible establishment than many former customers may have been used to seeing.
With more than 160 years serving Dunedin residents and visitors alike, the Captain Cook Hotel is the subject of countless students, staff, and community anecdotes that span generations.
It is this shared experience that ABC are playing on to drum up interest to ultimately get a sale. A promotional video was made by the brokers, asking anyone who’s had a beer at the Cook in the past to comment and share the post to go into the draw to win $200.
There are some huge events coming up in Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium such as a Bledisloe Cup test match later this year and Ed Sheeran’s three concerts in March and April 2018, which may help to convince potential buyers to take on the challenge.
Being on the doorstep of 25,000 students is also a boost that owners both past and present have relied on to keep sales up.
Interestingly, Cockerill says that “about 75 percent of the calls they have got so far are from the North Island or Australia rather than locally or even from the South Island.”