Successful tourist-route cafà up for sale

A busy café opposite one of Northland’s biggest tourist attractions is on the market for sale.
Gumdiggers Café in the small township of Matakohe shares a road frontage with the town’s popular Kauri Museum – home to one of New Zealand’s best displays of the nation’s kauri milling and gum collection operations dating back to the 1800s.

Matakohe is situated on the upper reaches of Northland’s Kaipara Harbour - some 45 kilometres south of Dargaville. The town has a population of approximately 400 residents – many of whom are regulars at Gumdiggers, which they view as their ‘unofficial’ local meeting place.

Having operated the Café successfully for six years the owners are now offering the package to the market. The Gumdiggers package includes the café business as a going concern, the land and building housing the popular food and beverage outlet, and an adjoining three-bedroom home – currently renting for $220 per week.

The Gumdiggers Café business and property is being marketed through Bayleys. Bayleys Whangarei sales consultant Bruce Young said the café was integrally situated to be part of several historic buildings housing artifacts and displays associated with Matakohe Kauri Museum. Those historic buildings include the town’s settler period church and post office.

“As a successful hospitality business, Gumdiggers has the fortune to have target markets stretching across several sectors. Firstly, there is a loyal local population base. Secondly there is constant passing traffic driving between Dargaville and the State Highway One intersection at Maungaturoto. And thirdly, there is the important tourism visitors stopping for a visit to the Kauri Museum,” Mr Young said.

The Kauri Museum attracts approximately 85,000 visitors annually. Aside from the kauri museum, Matakohe is also home to the Coates Memorial Church - built in tribute to the first New Zealand-born Prime Minister, the Right Honorable Gordon Joseph Coates who was born and raised in Matakohe.

“Gumdiggers Café is a licensed food and beverage operation which also has a BYO liquor policy. It serves high quality home-made food for morning and afternoon teas, lunches, and snacks, and is even occasionally used as a function venue by locals,” Mr Young said.

“The business has been operated by the Cullen family for the last six years and has proven profitability. Operating seven days a week, staff levels fluctuate from three to six employees depending on the tourist season. The staff are all experienced - in fact one of the team has been employed at the café for more than 20 years.”

The café has both indoor and al-fresco dining in the garden courtyard, with enclosed verandah areas and sweeping views across lush pastures. Supporting artistic Northlanders, Gumdiggers acts as a boutique retailer - selling locally-produced arts, crafts, produce, and cosmetics.

The business, building and adjacent home have a price tag of $730,000 plus GST (if any), with the vendors prepared to consider providing some finance to an approved purchaser, and are flexible as to a settlement date.

The café and home are set on 2094 square metres of land - zoned ‘rural’ but with resource consent to operate as a licensed restaurant. The café is a gable roofed structure with approximate 129 square-metres of floor space with around 60 square-metres of rear and front decking. Being eco-friendly, the cafe is serviced by a 22,500 litre water tank and pump system.

The food preparation area consists of a commercial-grade multi-function oven, commercial standard double stainless steel sink and benches, and a high-grade dishwasher.
The residential dwelling is a 120 square-metre two storey home with expansive decking and garage. The pitch-roofed house with exposed rafters and timber sarking, was built some 20-years ago and has a 28,000-litre water tank and a pump system, with a septic tank. Potential exists to create a separate title for the house.
Mr Young said the Ministry’s of Tourism’s latest visitor number research for the

Northland region forecast that total visitor numbers would increase by 6.4 percent between 2009 to 2015 – with a prediction that international visitor numbers would increase sharply.

“The opportunity to tap into this international visitor base represents a real growth potential for venues such as Gumdiggers Café. As one of the region’s premier tourist attractions, the Matakohe Kauri Museum provides an opportunity for Gumdioggers to ‘piggy back’ on its neighbour’s success, while at the same time the two operations mutually benefit each other,” Mr Young said.