Sustainability Hero
West Coast Pie Company
Since the first The West Coast Pie Company gold and silver medal winning entries in the 2022 Outstanding Food Producer Awards, Emily Lucas has sustainability grown the business. In 2024 The West Coast Pie Company was a BYD Auto NZ Sustainability Champion finalist. It was chosen by the sustainability judges for it myriad of social and environmental initiatives. Let us name a few…The West Coast Pie Company, creates flexible jobs for the West Coast, attracts visitors to Westport and offers pie lovers a sustainable, environmentally friendly and nutritionally superior choice. Connected to their community, in December 2023 they held their inaugural ‘Nice as Pie’ community lunch working with nine local social work charities and trusts providing a shared meal for 200 people living with food insecurity.
Judging came to holt for a few minutes during 2022 judging after one of the panels tasted some delicious pies and then (against their better judgement) shared them around. When the judges feedback came in The West Coast Pie Co was awarded a Gold for their Chatham Island Food Co Paua Pies and a Silver Medal for the Wild Nanny Goat Spiced Pie, with the judges saying the pies were delicious.
It takes three tries before Emily Lucas and and I connect, all thanks to the demands on Emily’s time - running an award-winning pie company and opening a new bakery for the lucky folk of Westport.
While The West Coast Pie Co only opened the doors on its bakery in early May, Emily’s been exclusively baking pies for the past couple of years. However, the genesis of The West Coast Pie Co dates back to 2010 when, as a restaurateur, Emily set out to make a really great pie.
Her decision was prompted by a comment that before her restaurant ‘Bay House’ opened on the coast just out of Westport, a three course meal on the Coast was ‘a pie and two beers’. After a little consideration, Emily realised that because the pie was such a tradition for Coasters they deserved to have an outstanding example made locally – and so her quest to make the perfect pie began.
Nowadays The West Coast Pie Co specialises in premium wild game pies, as Emily believes in using sustainably sourced meat. All the pie meat is wild hunted. That means it’s a free range, natural resource, tender with superior flavour. Every animal is traceable back to the land where it was harvested which guarantees there has been no exposure to agricultural animal health programmes.
The wild meat choices in The West Coast Pie Co range include; Spiced Wild Nanny Goat; Wild Goat & Mint Gravy; Honey and Manuka Smoked Wild Port and a selection of wild venison pies.
Until the baker recently opened its doors Emily was a one woman operation looking after all aspects of production, marketing, distribution and business from a hotel kitchen. Moving to a dedicated bakehouse has allowed Emily to employ a couple of staff but it hasn’t changed the process. All the pies are handmade and small batch baked.
Emily’s aim is to create a brand which elevates Coast cuisine and contributes to the local economy by bringing people to Westport for a taste. If Emily’s form is any guide, thousands will soon flock to the Coast for a pie. Her first restaurant Bay House brought 35,000 people in the region every year to eat there. She followed that up with Town House restaurant in Westport before taking five years in Auckland to gain industry experience, meet new people and try new things.
If you love pies and want to try new things - pop in into The West Coast Pie Co at 258 Palmerston Street, Westport or visit their website, you can even order pies if you want the taste of the West Coast will be delivered to your door!