Many people in the food and beverage industries have lived other lives before entering this tough and often highly competitive arena.

Rebecca Hardie Boys is no exception. The woman behind Hardieboys Beverages has driven buses, been a public servant, packed and delivered coffee and worked as a reading and maths tutor.

It’s ironic though that what really pushes her buttons – running her own beverage company – happened almost by accident.

“I’d been using my mother’s recipe to make ginger beer for my two daughters who were then aged four and six,” says Rebecca.

“One day I served it to a friend, Matt Hanna, who at the time owned Armadillo Restaurant. He loved it and before I knew it, I was supplying four cafes around Wellington with my home-made ginger beer.”

That was 10 years ago, and shortly afterwards a friend offered her space in a commercial kitchen where she got serious about turning her mother’s recipe into a business. She has since had three moves, including the old Manners Street Pizza Hut and her current site, an industrial unit at the far end of Wainuiomata.

These days, Rebecca’s fizzy liquid can be found in around 70 Wellington cafes, and as far afield as Napier and Auckland.

Even more astounding is the fact that Rebecca is still the only employee and does everything single-handedly, from producing the beverage, to bottling it and driving around town personally delivering it to cafes and restaurants.

“It means I have control over the whole process but yes, it does get terribly busy and, like most small business owners, I have had days where I’ve wanted to chuck it all in!”

What keeps her going is the positive feedback and support from both the public and restaurateurs such as Mike Egan and his team at Monsoon Poon, where her ginger beer is the main ingredient in a number of exotic cocktails.

Rebecca currently produces four beverages – classic ginger beer, dry ginger beer, fermented lemonade and fermented lime – but says there is “vast potential” to expand the range.

“I’m looking at using seasonal fruit, such as feijoa and blackberry, to add to ginger beer. I only use fresh ingredients, so the window of opportunity for producing these drinks would be very small, but there is definitely a market out there...”