Transcript
Kai Pasifika is a restaurant concept which aims to showcase contemporary Pacific cuisine in Polynesia's largest city. Kai Pasifika Restaurants, the company behind the venture, is crowd sourcing funds with a public share offering via the website PledgeMe. Robert Oliver says a Pacific restaurant in downtown Auckland is long overdue.
"We are a Pacific city, we're a Pacific country. We haven't put that island cuisine into our restaurant offerings."
Mr Oliver says he's receiving enthusiastic feedback about a culinary link with Auckland's Pacific identity. He aims to galvanise that enthusiasm.
"We didn't want to just have the Pacific community and the Auckland community as our clients, we wanted to create the opportunity for people to own the place as well. So it's the opportunity for shareholding investment."
The company aims to raise $NZ600,000 through the PledgeMe campaign which will be matched by investment from its directors. The head of banking and finance at KPMG in New Zealand John Kensington says the local market is not an easy one in which to raise capital, but PledgeMe allows smaller companies to appeal to likeminded investors.
"It's probably good for a niche idea that is not a mainstream idea and it can also be done either in chunks or it could be the first you could do. You could do one restaurant and then another."
Projections are for the first restaurant to open next year with a second in 2018. A Director at New Zealand's Financial Markets Authority, Garth Stanish, says people should go in well informed as it's possible to lose the entire amount invested.
"[An] Investor would like to have information, I'd imagine, around whatever past performance the company had had. What the business proposals and likely revenue streams are going forward."
Robert Oliver says all this information is available at the PledgeMe site. A New Zealand Pasifika MP, Labour's Carmel Sepuloni, will be a backer and says she's investing in the growth of Pacific cuisine and culture in Auckland.
"If I can personally support something that does showcase Pasifika culture and food and adds a bit of a Pacific flavour, no pun intended, to what is currently on offer in Auckland, then you know why wouldn't I get behind that?"
Robert Oliver says a Pacific business philosophy behind the venture demands that it be more than just a place to eat.
"We want to offer the opportunity to Pacific chefs in the Pacific islands to come and work in the restaurant and be immersed in their own cuisine in an urban format. We want to be able to do fund-raising dinners for some of our key partners in the Pacific and of course we want to showcase the products that Pacific Island food produces."
The PledgeMe offer closes on the 28th of November. Share allotments start at $NZ500.
