When Geoff and Dee Davenport from Granite Belt Brewery were invited to be the presenting partners for the RACQ LifeFlight fund-raising gala dinner in Toowoomba last weekend, they jumped at the chance. Dressing up for a cause and promoting your business at the same time seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.
Dee said that because she and Geoff were already regular donors to LifeFlight, they were invited to provide the beer for the night, which would make them presenting partners for the event. They also had the chance to give a speech where they were invited to spruik about their products to the very large audience.
So they packed up their boutique beers and their one-and-only cider, gathered their glad rags and set off for Toowoomba.
The reception that they – and their beverages – received was amazing.
“There were 650 people there, and nearly everybody had one of our beers or our cider in hand. It was amazing, and we’ve already received messages from people from the night about how much they loved them,” said Dee.
“Because we have the accommodation and restaurant as well as the brewery, we do sell quite a lot of product from here. Almost every customer will take a six-pack or a carton home with them, so apart from selling through our website and some select places in Toowoomba and Brisbane we probably haven’t been as proactive as we should be about getting our products out there.”
It wasn’t just an opportunity to promote their own business, which includes accommodation in 20 cabins and cottages, a restaurant and the brewery. With the name Granite Belt in their name, they’re a walking, talking advertisement for tourism in the region too.
“Even some people who knew the Granite Belt didn’t know where we were, so it was a really good promotional opportunity.”
Geoff and Dee have always been keen to ‘give back’ in ways that help their community.
“We’re pretty supportive of a lot of things in our community and this is something we’re very aware is needed. I don’t think we realised just how much the LifeFlight helicopter does until we moved into town three years ago. We’re close enough to hear the helicopter come in and take off again.”
Then their neighbour Santina Leonardi needed to be airlifted and that really brought the knowledge to their doorstep of how much the service was needed.
“We’ve known others who have needed the service since then. We love living in the country but it’s important to be able to get to a major centre in an emergency.“
