Fat Bastard Pies has been in business for about eight years in Southland and co-owner Simon Owen said since its inception it had become kind of a signature dish in the region.
The buzz was such that people from throughout the country started asking the business to send pies.
"So it became a situation which we thought ‘OK, this is going really well, but how do we get our pies to the rest of the country?"
One year ago, he and his business partner James Owen launched a Pie Club delivery service, which provides a chilled box of eight fresh pies every month to people around the country.
Even though they knew there was an appetite for such an initiative, they were surprised with the success in its first year of operation, Mr Owen said.
"We’ve got 1600 active subscribers and surprisingly, like 55 to 60% is from customers from the North Island."
Their delivery service could not cater to rural customers, but they had orders from as far as Northland.
The shop had hired four staff to help with the increasing demand.
Mr Owen said in the shop in Invercargill, they sold about 800 to 1200 pies a day, while 600 to 800 were sent out daily for the Pie Club.
"We didn’t know what the response was gonna be — we just put it out.
"So we had to hire more people, we had to spend a whole lot of growth and we were impressed with the reach as we’ve done no marketing in the North Island."
Mr Owen said their goal for the second anniversary was to increase the number of active subscriptions to 2000.
They had no plans to open another Fat Bastard shop in any other region of the country because Invercargill was the home of the brand, he said.
"It’s kind of something that has become iconic here [in Southland.]
"We even joke saying it’s kind of a cult and people in Invercargill are really proud of it."
