Do you want fuel with that? Petrol vouchers offered to Hamilton diners

Sunday, 24 May 2026

Hamilton punters looking to head out for dinner and drinks could be rounding off their meal with a tipple - of fuel, that is.

In a case of “locals supporting locals supporting locals” Waitomo Group and Overproof - the group behind a number of Hamilton venues - are offering diners a $10 fuel voucher when they spend $100 at Reggies, Mr Pickles, Everyday Eatery, or Hamilton Hotel.

It’s an initiative to get diners into the CBD and show them a good time amid fuel prices putting a squeeze on people’s discretionary spending, hospitality heavyweight Mat Pedley said.

In turn, it also supported local hospitality venues.

“It’s super cool that… a large organisation such as Waitomo is so keen to get behind other small local businesses.”

Kiwis have been doing it tough since the COVID-19 pandemic, he told the Waikato Times, and the hospitality industry and landscape had “certainly changed”.

“We just want to see more people in the city and more people out having a good time, not just in our venues but across the entire landscape.”

Hospitality was vital because it got people out and socialising, he said.

“It’s culture, it’s community - it’s not just restaurants, it’s bars and it’s music spaces, and all these different things that sort of help you escape and experience new things in life.”

Waitomo Group chief executive Simon Parham said the company was happy to help support local venues bringing life to Hamilton, especially amid high fuel prices putting pressure on the hospitality sector.

“Anything we can do to help lift that and keep it up and keep it buoyant, we're happy to support that.”

It was the “best of both worlds” for diners, he added.

“You have a great experience out, and it's not costing you too much to get there, so it's perfect.”

“The more people get out, the better, and the more people [getting] Waitomo vouchers, the better as well.”

Putting money directly into the community did more than any headline sponsorship, he said, with funding going to help “people get from A to B, especially when it hurts”.

Fuel prices were in a “middle ground…not going up, but it’s not going down”.

The market was pricing towards a resolution, with fuel prices expected to decrease and businesses to feel relief once the Strait of Hormuz - a critical chokepoint for the world’s oil supply - opened, he said.

Hospitality New Zealand Waikato branch president Chris Rollitt said the wider sector was in a challenging but good space amid volatile fuel pricing.

After a “harsh” 2025, hospitality had turned a corner and seen some real promise at the beginning of the year, he said.

The impact of high fuel prices had been felt more deeply in the past two or three months, causing eateries to adapt their business prices to mitigate pressure.

“Simply [like] any business, you work off the numbers and the cost of goods is a significant challenge,” he said.

“We're coming out of the inflation spiral and these prices have just started to settle down and then all of a sudden we get a different pressure on our cost of goods through the logistical side of getting it here.”

Alongside higher freight costs, the industry was having to stomach increased overheads and diners eating out less frequently as their own budgets tightened.

“The money that would be going out for dinner…that's been chucked into the diesel tank.”

But Rollitt said it wasn’t all “doom and gloom”, with people continuing to dine out and hospitality remaining the main conduit for socialising.

He pointed to increased tourism and the agriculture sector doing well as “green shoots” for the industry, and said the upcoming Fieldays and FIFA World Cup would also get people out into bars and restaurants.

“There's some really good stuff going on - you've got to be positive.”