Rutherford & Meyer is building out its Upcycled Grain Project brand with its eye on the prize of “owning the deli category” in the US.
The family-owned business, which was founded by Canterbury farming friends Alison Meyer and Gaye Rutherford in 1996, sells its flagship R&M fruit paste, crackers and wafers via the foodservice and retail channels in New Zealand, and exports to retailers in the US and Australia.
However, the current focus for the company which since 2001 has been owned by Meyer’s daughter Jan and her husband, is expanding the range and distribution of its upcycled deli brand, which it launched three years ago targeting the growing conscious consumer demographic.
“Some companies have an organic line, but we called ours Upcycled Grain Project so it was really obvious from the name on the packet what it was about,” chief executive Jan Meyer told the Ticker.
Using spent grains recovered from the beer brewing process, it went to market with two UGP cracker SKUs, parmesan and rock salt respectively, which are now stocked in selected Foodstuffs supermarket delis and independent retailers.
“We were the first snacking company in New Zealand to go mainstream with upcycling,” Meyer said.
With an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food wasted globally per annum – around a third of food that is produced globally – upcycled products are gaining ground with consumers looking for options to reduce the climate and environmental impacts associated with food loss and waste.
“It’s not only just about upcycling but also about sustainability – reducing our reliance on new resources,” Meyer said.
The fact that R&M had cracked scale manufacturing using the grains supplied by an unnamed local brewery from IPA and APA brewing processes, was crucial for the Wellington-based company and unlocked the opportunity for new products and growing export markets, including the US.
“We know how to dry the grain at volume, which no-one else has managed to do,” Meyer said.
This saw it enter the US with its UGP cracker SKUs earlier this year securing shelf space with well-known national natural and speciality grocery store, Sprouts Farmer Markets, and Meyer confirmed it was in talks about the release of its new range of grain crisps that have this month gone on sale domestically.
“Grain crisps are being presented to conventional and natural retailers in the US. They will launch in July this year,” Meyer said.
“It is a really exciting market to be in. There is a huge amount of opportunity – we want to own the deli space in the US.”
The four-strong range this month went on sale in New Zealand via New World, Pak’nSave, Four Square, Farro Fresh, Moore Wilson’s and Ballantynes, as well as R&M’s website.
The four flavours – Fig and Cardamom, Cranberry and Coconut, Raisin and Rosemary and Orange and Sesame – have an RRP $5.49. The range is also online now through the R&M’s website for $5.50 for a 90g box.
Source: https://www.foodticker.co.nz/
NZX-listed Foley Wines' grape harvest is forecast to be up 65 per cent annually and the business has consent to buy a Central Otago vineyard as well as building at another property.
Chief executive Mark Turnbull made the three announcements today.
First, he said the company has almost completed its harvest and got 9085 tonnes. About 100 tonnes are still to be harvested at Foley's Mt Difficulty. The total to be harvested for the year represents about a 65 per cent increase on last year's harvest of 5582 tonnes, he said.
Second, the Overseas Investment Office had granted approval for the company to buy the Zebra Bendigo Flat Vineyard from Zebra Vineyards. That is a 55.5ha property with about 30ha in Pinot Noir and 12.5ha bare land, ideal for further planting, Turnbull said.
Third, resource consent has been granted for a new cellar door and restaurant project at Foley's Bannockburn's Mt Difficulty property, he said.
The business is also building a new restaurant, cellar door and distillery development in Martinborough. Progress there has been slower than initially expected due to Covid.
Turnbull said once both new cellar door projects were completed in Central Otago and Martinborough, the business would have significant new wine tourism venues.
In October, Foley told the market it had entered into a conditional contract to buy the Bendigo property from Zebra Vineyards, subject to approval. The company said it planned to finance the deal via the Bank of New Zealand.
Foley owns many vineyards including Martinborough Vineyard, Te Kairanga, Grove Mill, Vavasour, Mt Difficulty and the Lighthouse Gin distillery.
Brands include Russian Jack, Dashwood by Vavasour, Roaring Meg by Mt Difficulty, Grove Mill, Martinborough Vineyard, Sanctuary by Grove Mill, Te Tera, Goldwater, Boatshed Bay, Clifford Bay and The Pass.
The new Martinborough cellar door and restaurant project has been delayed due to Covid. The roof is now going on. Problems getting materials to the site had, like many other projects, delayed completion.
The Te Kairanga winery on Martins Rd is being redeveloped, an old winery building removed and the new purpose-built facility is rising.
Lighthouse Gin's new distillery within the development will give it the space and design to meet demand, with a custom-built copper still commissioned from German distillery manufacturer CARL.
Visitors will be able to see the distiller at work, Foley Wines said.
Shares are trading around $1.52, giving a market cap of $99 million. The shares traded up yesterday, by around 12c. Bumper harvests are being recorded at other vineyards due to a good season. Foley Wines had already signalled its Zebra purchase some months ago.
Source: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/
$6.1 Million investment for Pictor — led by Marko Bogoievski and K One W One Ltd. — to aid the market development of novel antibody testing and other in vitro diagnostics LOS ANGELES, California, USA — April 13, 2022 — Following a new investment of $6.1 million (NZD $8.8 million), biotech company Pictor today announced a partnership with U.S. laboratory service provider Mobility Health, launching a new antibody test as an important advance in COVID-19 monitoring and treatment. The investment, led by former Morrison & Co CEO Marko Bogoievski and specialist growth investor K One W One Ltd. (K1W1), will support market and product development of the new antibody test and other Pictor in vitro diagnostics. This first of its kind test, Pictor’s PictArrayTM SARS-CoV-2 assay, will enable high efficacy personalized COVID-19 assessments by detecting if a patient has antibodies from a previous infection of SARS-CoV-2 (from spike protein (SP) and nucleocapsid protein (NP) antibodies) or from vaccination alone (SP antibodies only). It will also indicate whether at-risk patients have failed to mount a detectable antibody response despite vaccination or infection (SP and NP negative). “The PictArray™ SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Test is a high performance, all-in-one, NP/SP COVID-19 antibody test with serological differentiation. This is the only known test that separately measures antibodies from vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 infection in one test,” explained Pictor’s Chief Medical Officer Tadd Lazarus, MD. “The separate detection of SP and NP enables more precise clinical intervention.” Due to its ability to differentiate between natural and vaccinebased antibodies, the PictArray test is an advancement with critical applications including vaccine development. “Pictor is pleased to partner with Mobility Health to offer such a unique and important test,” said Howard Moore, CEO of Pictor. “We are also incredibly grateful to Marko Bogoievski and Sir Stephen Tindall’s investment company K1W1 for their leadership in this investment. We now have the capital for further market development and launches within the United States, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the EU. ” Mobility Health founder and CEO Sandra Gunselman, Ph.D. expressed her own excitement about the launch of the PictArrayTM test: “This best-in-class technology offers each patient a personalized status of his or her protection against Covid-19. This is an important new tool in the enduring fight against Covid-19 and advances our mission of providing access to innovative new products.”
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a healthcare concern as new strains of the virus have emerged. According to recent data, COVID-19 cases are up significantly in many US states as well as in Europe and the UK. According to a March 31st statement by the World Health Organization in its weekly epidemiological update: "COVID-19 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and it is too early to reduce the quality of surveillance.” Sir Stephen Tindall’s New Zealand investment company K1W1 and the former Morrison & Co. CEO Bogoievski led the round of funding, which involved 20 investors, bringing Pictor’s overall capital raised to $17 million (NZD $24.6 million). It was one in a series of funding rounds resulting from Pictor’s commitment to expanding manufacturing and R&D capabilities, not only in New Zealand, Europe, and India but in the U.S. where Pictor recently established headquarters. About Pictor Pictor is an in-vitro diagnostics company that offers a patented multiplexed platform for highly accurate and efficient testing of complex and infectious diseases for human and animal health. PictArray™ multiplexed technology makes it possible to test multiple disease markers in a single test simultaneously — with higher sensitivity, faster throughput, and reduced turn-around time. The company’s lead product, PictArray™ SARS-CoV-2 IgG ELISA Kit, enables more informed clinical intervention to manage the threat of COVID-19. For more information, please visit http://pictordx.com, https://www.linkedin.com/company/pictorltd, and @LtdPictor on Twitter. About K One W One Ltd. K1W1 is an investment company owned by Sir Stephen Tindall, the founder of successful New Zealand retailer The Warehouse. To date, K1W1 is responsible for over a total of $100 million in seed and venture capital funds for a large number of start-up and early-stage businesses in the arenas of biotech, environmental technology, high tech, software, and other high export potential businesses. The company’s objective is to assist young entrepreneurs to grow New Zealand as a leader in the “knowledge economy” and to help create a culture of making New Zealand “cash flow positive” in the international goods and services trade. About Marko Bogoievski Known as a high conviction investor, Marko Bogoievski served as the chief executive officer of New Zealand-based Morrison & Co before stepping down this past December. His career saw him lead Morrison & Co to become a global leader in infrastructure investment, specifically focused on data, renewable energy and healthcare. In his thirteen-year tenure with Morrison & Co, Bogoievski led growth in funds under management to over US$20 billion. About Mobility Health Mobility Health is a biohealth diagnostic company focused on bridging unintended gaps in healthcare by providing access to advanced diagnostics in innovative ways. In addition to mobile testing, the company has a CLIA-certified reference lab with accreditation for 43 states, including California and New York. Mobility Health provides clinical trial and research services to universities, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies worldwide. Mobility Health is a member of the Mason, Ohio living lab initiative to scale biohealth start-up companies.. More information can be found at www.mobilityhealthlab.com.
LawVu, a collaboration software company for in-house legal teams, has raised $NZ20 million ($USD13.5 million) on the back of another year of 100 per cent-plus revenue growth.
The business, which was founded by Sam Kidd and Tim Boyne in 2015, has had a growth surge on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, which encouraged in-house legal teams to adopt collaborative software to help manage their work remotely. Its software helps teams manage contracts, documents, e-billing, outsourced work and reporting from a single cloud-based platform.
The raise was positioned as an extension to LawVu’s $NZ17 million series A round, which closed mid-last year. It was led by the New York-based global private equity firm Insight Partners, with participation from existing local backer AirTree Ventures.
Mr Kidd told The Australian Financial Review that extending the series A funding round had bought the company time before it embarked on a larger series B round next year.
“We’ve always tried to be capital-efficient, and we haven’t cashed up to the same extent as US companies … and this brings us more in line with what a series A in the US looks like,” he said.
“We were loving the investment partners we have, and it made sense [to raise more capital] to keep building up the team, proving what we can do, and we had a lot of backing from [the investors] to focus on execution.”
Telstra was LawVu’s first customer win, and it has since added AMP, Expedia, coffee chain Dutch Bros, Deloitte and PwC, as well as fast-growing tech companies such as Linktree and Splunk. It has customers in more than 30 countries globally.
When a company decides to adopt LawVu, its team can be up and running on the software within hours.
“LawVu’s mission to streamline the legal environment is critical for in-house legal teams managing business complexities in a fast-paced world,”
AirTree Ventures partner James Cameron said. “When we’re lucky enough to have an inside view to see a company outperform in the way LawVu has, it’s an easy decision to double down on our investment.”
The cash injection will support another 40 to 60 hires, taking LawVu’s headcount up to 180 by the end of the year. It will also be used to build more features into the platform.
“The investment is really about people, and that’s across the board in a number of areas, including the go-to-market team, sales, marketing, customer success and engineering talent,” Mr Kidd said.
“That’s something every company is struggling with. It’s super-competitive at the moment.”
“Recruitment is selling. A lot of companies out there still act like it’s a privilege to work for them, but we sell the dream of working at LawVu.” In an effort to retain staff and attract the best talent, Mr Kidd said the business had been hit by higher wage pressures.
“Pain is what I’m feeling. It’s so competitive. People are more comfortable hiring people out of their region or country, and it’s a dangerous thing for Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
“We’re competing whether you want or not with US companies. If you’re young, happy and can work awkward hours … and there’s a US company throwing around US dollars, it makes them powerful.”
https://lawvu.com/
Today, we’re announcing we’ve acquired NZXR, a world-class AR studio based in New Zealand. NZXR has led the creation of AR-first experiences for years, helping companies and brands create engaging and interactive AR apps and prototypes for mobile phones and AR headsets. Joining Niantic, the NZXR team will become an integral part of the design and development of multiplayer real-world AR experiences unique to Niantic.
Our goal has always been to create augmented reality experiences that can be enjoyed by millions of people and to build the technology that powers them and third-party applications – Niantic Lightship. From Ingress to Pokémon GO, and Pikmin Bloom, people around the world have come together to complete Ingress missions, catch Pokémon, collect Pikmin, and explore the world. The NZXR team will help us accelerate new kinds of AR experiences for the real-world metaverse where our explorers can create, contribute, and interact with digital objects in a way that is persistent and shared by everyone.
NZXR shares this vision for how technology can positively impact our lives out in the physical world. They have created unique multiplayer AR experiences that blend the real and digital worlds for mobile phones, and AR headsets from Qualcomm and Magic Leap. The team has built dozens of experiences and supported projects ranging from interactive theater to AR skateboarding to multiplayer AR demos, and more.
We’re excited to welcome NZXR to Niantic and continue building the future of AR and the real-world metaverse together. For NZXR’s shared perspective on the news, please see the blog post from James Everett, the co-founder of NZXR.
-Dennis Hwang, VP of Visual and Interaction Design
https://nianticlabs.com/
Key AmChams in the Indo-Pacific Region Digital Trade Recommendations
Comments to the Office of the US Trade Representative Fair and Resilient Trade Pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework
Key American Chambers of Commerce (“AmChams”) located in the Indo-Pacific welcome and support the Biden Administration’s proposal of an Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). This region is where the future of the digital economy will be determined. In looking to build a strong cooperation framework that is relevant for the 21st century, it is essential that the IPEF include strong digital trade rules and standards which would facilitate the growth of digital trade and commerce between the US and the Asia-Pacific region.
Supporting this statement are the AmChams in Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Collectively, we call on the US to play a leadership role in shaping the digital trade landscape. The US should build on the digital trade rules in the US-Mexico-Canada FTA (USMCA), the US- Japan Digital Trade Agreement, as well as the Singapore-Australia Digital Economy Agreement in considering IPEF digital trade disciplines. For US business operations, these rules and standards are particularly important and pertinent to include in the IPEF in promoting open digital markets, facilitating digital trade, and promoting trust in the digital economy.
Promoting open digital markets
The IPEF should promote open digital markets, including the ability to transfer and access data across borders which is critical to all economic sectors. When data flows are restricted, exporters and other stakeholders are hurt. Core principles such as non-discrimination should be applied to digital trade and digital products. Recommended provisions:
Facilitating digital trade
The IPEF should promote rules and initiatives that make it easier to conduct digital trade across borders. This includes a range of measures including the adoption of digital signatures, e- invoicing to help make trade and customs processes more transparent and efficient, and encouraging the development of interoperable e-payments systems. Recommended provisions:
Promoting trust in the digital economy
Trust is fundamental to the growth and development of the digital economy and cross-border digital transactions. IPEF should promote cooperation on privacy, cybersecurity, and trust in data flows, while ensuring that businesses can transfer data across borders through interoperable data transfer mechanisms. IPEF should also promote measures that help to create a safe online environment for digital transactions and trade. At the same time, IPEF should also set guardrails around digital regulation which is used as a guise for protectionism or censorship and access to private data held by companies and individuals. Recommended provisions:
IPEF should ensure that digital technologies are utilized to bring the traditionally marginalized groups including small businesses, women, minorities, and rural communities into global trade. IPEF should focus on expanding access to technology so that these communities can participate in and benefit from being plugged into global value chains and the global marketplace. Recommendations:
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Leaft Foods attracted the attention of international and local investors with its innovation that enables the extraction of plant protein from sustainably-farmed green leaves, for use in a range of foods.
Canterbury, New Zealand (4am NZ Standard Time, Friday 8th April) Leaft Foods today announced a $15mUSD/$22mNZD Series A investment round led by Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures, with participation from Ngāi Tahu Holdings via their New Economy Mandate, ACC’s Climate Change Impact Fund, and NBA Basketballer and impact investor Steven Adams.
Leaft Foods attracted the attention of international and local investors with its innovation that enables the extraction of plant protein from sustainably-farmed green leaves, for use in a range of foods. Through this system, Leaft Food has ambitions to transform the agriculture industry for the better.
Founded by Dr John Penno and Maury Leyland Penno and led by CEO Ross Milne, the food-for-climate solutions company is developing emission reduction pathways for livestock farming via its integrated farm system, which produces a protein-optimised animal feed from the co-product of its protein extraction.
With the latest round of funding, the Christchurch-based company will grow its farm system, its technical and product development teams, expand research and development, and enhance manufacturing capacity ahead of market launch.
Leaft Foods Co-Founder Maury Leyland Penno says, “The priority has always been about getting people along on the journey with us. The Leaft system could be truly transformational, and that is what our investment partners are backing.”
"We deeply understand the challenges of the current food system, which is why we have designed a business model that integrates with existing farm systems. Leaft Foods is creating an opportunity for New Zealand agriculture to lead the global plant protein market, which could reach $US36B by 2024.”
Leaft Foods' technology extracts Rubisco, the most abundant protein on the planet found in all green leaves. Rubisco has a complete amino acid profile, similar to beef. Leaft's protein does not require blending to manipulate the protein content or functionality, unlike other plant proteins. In addition to its high digestibility, Leaft's protein has a neutral taste and colour. Its hypoallergenic status could be a gamechanger for people sensitive to whey, soy, or egg protein.
Co-founder Dr John Penno says "Bringing this all-in-one protein to the market will have a huge impact on the lives of people dissatisfied with animal and plant proteins, many of them citing taste and environmental reasons, while also, creating a pathway for New Zealand farmers to diversify into a system with a lower environmental footprint.
CEO Ross Milne adds, "We have spent the last three years validating the Leaft system and proving our protein extraction technology at pilot scale. Embarking on commercialisation means generating an entirely new value chain. Our focus is on developing partnerships with those who share our commitment to creating a food system that prioritises the environment.”
More information
About Khosla Ventures (Lead Investor)
About the Ngāi Tahu Holdings New Economy Mandate
About ACC’s Climate Change Impact Fund
About Steven Adams
Source: https://www.leaftfoods.com/
HONOLULU – Hawaiian Airlines today confirmed its long-awaited return to New Zealand on July 2 with the resumption of three-times-weekly nonstop flights between Honolulu (HNL) and Auckland (AKL), ending a more than two-year-long suspension due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
“Our July return comes at just the right time as Kiwis looking to get away this winter can now take a much-needed tropical escape to the Hawaiian Islands or visit the continental United States. We look forward to welcoming them back with our authentic Hawaiian hospitality and unparalleled onboard service,” said Andrew Stanbury, regional director for Australia and New Zealand at Hawaiian Airlines. “The resumption of our New Zealand service, along with the restart of our Sydney service in December, completes the reopening of our Oceania market – an integral piece of our company’s post-pandemic recovery.”
HA445 will resume on July 2, departing HNL Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2:25 p.m. and arriving at AKL at 9:45 p.m. the next day. Beginning July 4, HA446 will depart AKL on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 11:55 p.m. with a 10:50 a.m. same-day arrival at HNL, allowing guests to settle in and explore O‘ahu or connect to any of Hawaiian Airlines’ four Neighbor Island destinations. Kiwi travelers also regain access to the carrier’s extensive U.S. domestic network of 16 gateways, including new destinations in Austin, Orlando, and Ontario, California, with the option to enjoy a stopover on the Hawaiian Islands in either direction.
Hawaiian has proudly served as one of the leading carriers for service between New Zealand and Hawaiʻi since March 2013. The airline will continue to operate its AKL-HNL route with 278-seat, spacious wide-body Airbus A330 aircraft featuring 18 Premium Cabin lie-flat leather seats, 68 of its popular Extra Comfort seats and 192 Main Cabin seats. Guests onboard Hawaiian’s transpacific flights to Hawaiʻi will also experience its new Travel Pono in-flight video, which debuted last year to encourage visitors to experience Hawai‘i safely and respectfully.
hose arriving in Hawaiʻi must comply with U.S. federal travel requirements, including providing proof of COVID-19 vaccination and a negative test result obtained no more than one day prior to travel. Non-citizens traveling from Hawaiʻi to New Zealand need to submit proof of vaccination and a negative test result before entering the country, and take two rapid antigen tests upon arrival. All international guests are encouraged to reference official government channels for the latest updates as they prepare for their trip.
For flight schedules and to purchase tickets, visit www.HawaiianAirlines.com
Ampersand investment opportunity Syft is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Ampersand Capital Partners (Ampersand) to invest $22.8m in Syft, subject to shareholder approval. Ampersand will subscribe to 17,545,000 convertible preference shares, equivalent to 19.6% of the total shares post-investment, at a price of $1.30 per share.
Ampersand is a Boston, Massachusetts, USA based private equity investor, founded in 1988 and with more than US$2billion assets under management. They specialise in the life sciences and healthcare sectors, and have deep expertise in this space.
As part of the investment, Syft will also welcome Mr David Patteson to the Board. Mr Patteson leads Ampersand’s Portfolio Acceleration team, and currently serves as Chairman of US headquartered Alliance Pharma. He has over 30 years of experience in the space in Board and CEO roles, scaling businesses built on mass spectrometry and other analytical instrumentation technologies.
Alex Fala, CEO of Syft, comments “Syft continues to build momentum in our core business. The capital from Ampersand will allow us to accelerate our progress in the semiconductor market and develop our next scalable opportunity in life sciences. Dave Patteson and Ampersand have deep expertise and networks that are directly applicable in Syft. We couldn’t think of a better partner to have on our next phase.”
Dave Patteson, Partner at Ampersand, shared “Syft has a remarkable technology and product platform, with notable traction in semiconductor and adjacent segments. Their life science market pull, applications and commercial expertise, combined with Ampersand’s investments, should allow for meaningful penetration and adoption rates. We are thrilled to partner with their executive team, board, and shareholders to help realize the full potential.
” Following this announcement shareholders will receive two invitations: 1. A formal notice of meeting to attend the Special Meeting to vote on the ordinary resolutions to issue capital and formally appoint Mr Patteson to the Board. And; 2. An update on the company strategy from CEO, Alex Fala, at 10am, Thursday 7 th April. Please register your interest via the following link, where you will also find further instructions on how to participate.
Operational Update We are now in the final days of the financial year, and Syft is projecting an unaudited full year revenue of $34m, 18% growth YoY. Mr Fala commented “We are pleased to have returned to growth mode in FY22. We have a large pipeline, including significant potential orders from our major customers. We had aimed for more of that revenue to come into the FY22 year, but that hasn’t ultimately met with our customers’ operational plans and the impacts of the Omicron variant. That’s somewhat the reality of the current concentration in our revenue, which we continue to work on in our sales activities.” To further support the business growth, Syft has appointed Sharonn Zimmerman as Vice President of People and Capability. Sharonn will oversee every aspect of the people function as Syft develops its talent, capability and culture to enable global growth. Sharonn brings over 30 years of experience in a myriad of HR leadership roles. In her early career, she was appointed by Ixchange/FrontRange Solutions as HR Director to support their transition from a private to Nasdaq listed company. She spent 12 years with Dimension Data / NTT, as head of the talent integration and organisational development practices, receiving a number of awards for her innovative, people-centred approach and ability to scale for growth. She joins Syft after spending just short of three-years in a strategic HR role with the Ministry of Social Development, the lead agency in the social sector. Sharonn commented, "I'm thrilled at the opportunity of joining Syft, a homegrown success story, and returning to my business roots. Syft is a big little company, small enough to enable agility and pace, while also big in ambition and global footprint. I’m particularly energised at the prospect of working alongside a relatively new and dynamic leadership team, and supporting the company’s growth agenda.” Sharonn will join the team based in Christchurch at the end of April.
Source: https://www.syft.com/
Fix & Fogg is ramping up its US presence where its distribution is now close to 3,000 stores and has just secured a range extension with Whole Foods Market.
Co-founder and chief executive Roman Jewell told the Ticker the company is on track to be selling eight million jars a year in the next 24 months – up from the current one million – after building on its flagship Whole Foods Market deal to go into 500 stores in July last year.
“We are now in 3,000 stores across the US but it is all relatively new,” Jewell said.
“What Whole Foods did was lead to a cascade of new distribution. We’ve been in some of those stores only 2-3 months and some of them have said we’re taking you and putting it on the shelf next month so we’re building out the brand across the US.”
The Wellington company will “just continue to ramp”, Jewell added, with a range extension with Whole Foods helping to drive growth. From May, the 25-employee nut butter company will see its current deal with the leading US retailer’s 500 stores extended from three to seven SKUs.
“The range extension has come about because of what we brought to the category. That was, sure, good quality products, but also innovative – we brought interesting flavours to a category that was a little bit stagnant,” Jewell said.
“Shoppers have their weekly favourites, but they still want to be dazzled, they still want to find cool things. It is important for Whole Foods and other natural and specialty grocery stores that they deliver that, I think we have helped solve a problem.”
For a relatively small company, Fix & Fogg was also deeply invested in what is one of the world’s largest nut butter markets.
It has a Houston-based team led by US general manager Blake Lupton and ploughed US$500,000 into a joint venture with a Colorado manufacturer to secure its own line, which completed in September.
All of this was a “massive financial commitment for the business,” said Jewell, who co-owned the company with his wife Andrea, but it has been a bet that is paying off.
“We always wanted to go down the path of being present in that market, not just present with our product but physically present with our brand, our values, our people because it shows a level of seriousness,” he said.
“America is a market where everybody turns up with the next best thing or the latest trend, but it can have a lot of gloss and veneer without substance.
“We have a really good quality product first and foremost, and a team that could deliver it.”
Jewell added that it was a different approach from a typical export strategy, “which is to put lots of things in containers and send them off around the world and attend trade shows once a year”.
“We are really trying to show that this is both a New Zealand and American based business. The model we applied is very hungry for capital, but it has proven itself.”
While it had run the rule over other markets within reach of its US manufacturing hub – such as Canada and Europe – the focus remained on the US for now, in nataural and speciality grocery stores.
“We have a rule of thumb here that it always takes at least two years to actually prove and make a product or the brand work in a market,” Jewell said.
“People have to get to know it, you have huge start-up costs in terms of slotting fees, setting up distribution and marketing so it is always good to take a long term play.
“Markets like the US can just chew money up. You have to go in knowing what you are getting yourself into, and if you go in undercooked you could just come unstuck and end up retrenching back to where you were. You need enough gas in the tank to get through a couple of years.”
There was plenty more to play for in the US, and Fix & Fogg had the ability to build another line or another facility there should it need to.
“There are 380 million people in America versus 5 million here in New Zealand and thousands of grocery stores. It is the largest nut butter category in the world so it is neat to be playing in there and it is neat to be in the best stores in that market.”
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