The best things in life are simple. Good kai. Hard graft. A full puku. New Zealanders love their pies, but the Kiwi pie has lost its way. Once a handcrafted bakery staple, it’s now a mass-produced, forgettable snack—churned out by big corporations, many of them no longer even local.
Puku Pies is here to put things right. Founded by Jamie Williams and his team, Puku is a homegrown challenger brand bringing the pie back to its roots. Good, honest kai, made by Kiwis, for Kiwis. No shortcuts. No compromise. Just proper pies with real character.
With its first store now open in Lyall Bay, Wellington, Puku is more than just a pie shop, its built to take on the big players and bring the pie back home.
New Zealanders eat over 74 million pies a year, but look closely, and you’ll see the problem. The biggest brands dominating the shelves aren’t even Kiwi anymore.
Jamie’s driver? The kiwi pie is losing its mana.
Where once there was craft, community, and culture, now there’s just bland, mass-produced filler. The best pies used to be earned. A hot steak and cheese after a hard day’s work, a mince and cheese devoured on the way home from the pub. Now? They’ve been reduced to just another grab-and-go snack.
Puku Pies set out to reclaim the pie, to create something proudly local, deeply rooted and packed with meaning. But to go head-to-head with the big names, it needed a brand as bold as its ambition.
Puku is more than a name. In te ao Māori, your puku (belly) isn’t just where you ‘shove’ your lunch. It’s the centre of your strength, where intuition, resilience, and mana come together. When your puku is happy, everything else falls into place.
That’s the essence of Puku Pies. This is kai that fuels, restores, and satisfies not just for today, but has an eye out for the generations before and after.
The brand identity had to capture that depth and energy. Working closely with Jamie and his team, we built a brand that is bold, unapologetic, and full of character, a brand that feels as real as the pies taste.
The visual identity is strong, simple, and unmistakably Kiwi, rejecting the overworked gloss of corporate competitors. The store design reflects the same down-to-earth, no-nonsense personality, making Puku a place that feels part of the neighbourhood. The packaging is straight-up and memorable built for those who know a proper feed when they see one.
Puku Pies opened its doors in Lyall Bay and immediately made its mark. The pies speak for themselves, but the brand is what makes Puku more than just a shop.
With a visual identity that stands out and a voice that speaks directly to Kiwis, Puku is ready to take on the big guys and bring the pie back to Aotearoa.
This isn’t just about selling pies. It’s about restoring pride, personality, and meaning to something deeply Kiwi.
And if the reaction so far is anything to go by, this is the start of something rather tasty!.
