ANDREW PLIMMER
"You can't beat a good mead with a good book.", says Plimmer, owner of Colony in The Crossing.
After decades running international technology companies and working with global brands, Plimmer returned to Christchurch where he shares his love of New Zealand products with his love of good stories, and Plimmer has plenty of them.
Most people wouldn't know that the owner of the boutique Colony store had led development of machine learning and augmented reality technology, launched albums for global music superstars and movies such as Despicable Me, Tron: Legacy and Ghostbusters, and advised as a futurist for some of the world's largest food and beverage brands. Working in innovation with some of the biggest brands in the world reinforced to Plimmer that there are some universal fundamentals.
"People want more than a product - they want to be able to share the story behind it. Colony represents over 150 years of New Zealand retail, so we're not short of material!"
Plimmer also hasn't lost his love of innovation, working with a diverse team of professionals in a sustainable farming endeavour, Leftfield Innovation. "At Leftfield, we're actively working to help farmers and our agri-economy increase our environmental and economic sustainability. It is just a different way of applying creative, systems-thinking to achieve good things."
As one of the central city 'curators', Plimmer actively promotes local collaboration and facilitates walking 'famils' to raise awareness of central city businesses.
Make sure you pop in to Colony in The Crossing sometime, support New Zealand business, and may try some mead and share stories.
With such a rich history, we were keen to find out some of Plimmer’s favourite city spots. He has a few of them that all seem to run down the local Christchurch institution vein.
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His favourite brunch spot, Black Betty cafe on Madras Street, serves great food & coffee and is a genuine Christchurch institution. For dinner, he tries to find somewhere new around The Terrace, saying it is hard to go wrong, or down to his local at Pomeroys for a craft beer & bite.
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When looking for a gift, then a great NZ gin from Juniper Collective, or something Kiwi from Hapa or Beehive Collective, and his guilty pleasure is indulging at Scorpio Books (a great mead and a great book!)