BRINGING NEW ZEALAND’S FINEST TO THE GLOBAL CONSUMER
Company Profile: New Zealand Natural Exports Written by GEMMA KENT
BRINGING NEW ZEALAND’S FINEST TO THE GLOBAL CONSUMER The F&B industry accounts for almost half of all goods and services exports emanating from the island nation of New Zealand, which is already a global leader in the export of dairy products and lamb, and is now turning its attention to more high-end consumer products. Mr David Easton, owner of New Zealand Natural Exports, outlines the role he envisions his company will play in this national effort, as the firm strives to penetrate new, highly prospective markets across Asia and beyond with the very best that the country’s upscale food and beverage producers have to offer. Written by Gemma Kent. or a nation of around five million people, New Zealand’s remarkable food export performance is something of an international success story. As one of a small number of net food exporting countries worldwide, New Zealand plays an important role in global food security today, exporting more dairy products, lamb and venison than any other country,
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and ranking among the leading exporters of beef, kiwifruit, apples and seafood. While New Zealand’s strong track record of producing high-quality food and beverages trusted by importers and consumers across the globe already stands it in good stead, the sector’s growth path is being shaped by a national drive towards innovation and
agility, with a view to exporting more value-added foods and finished products. Indeed, in the absence of international tourism due to the pandemic, taking New Zealand’s renowned high-quality primary food products to the next level could be the key to a prosperous future for the wider economy – and New Zealand Natural Exports is seizing that opportunity with both hands. Big buyers in Asia
Having initially started out as an exporter of cut flowers, by the early 2000s a surge in competition from suppliers in Mexico, Colombia and China led the company to reconsider its product offering, as its owner, David Easton, recalls: “At the time we were raising a young family and we were buying a lot of organic and natural foods, which inspired us to explore the opportunities that may exist for exporting such products. In ‡ 3
2006 we were lucky enough to find a big buyer in Hong Kong, called the Dairy Farm Group, which was setting up an organic and natural foods supermarket,” he tells us. “They were looking for products that were new to the market and ended up taking everything we had, which was quite a small portfolio at the time – we shipped organic baby food, muesli and cookies by sea and organic eggs by air – but it gave us a big breakthrough.” Indeed, Hong Kong-based Dairy Farm Group is a leading pan-Asian retailer with a listing on the London Stock Exchange and more than 10,000 outlets across the region, predominantly in Hong Kong and Singapore, where it began stocking New Zealand Natural Exports’ products in 2010. “The advantage for us in entering those two markets is that neither country produces food domestically – they’re totally reliant on imports,” Mr Easton points out. “Moreover, in both countries there are just two major retail chains, and our products are sold in one of them, so it’s a good place to be. Today we also sell to Dairy Farm in Malaysia, and beyond that we ship to the Villa Market supermarket chain in Thailand.” The Dairy Farm Group remains a major customer of the company’s today, incorporating stores under the ‘Market Place’, ‘3hreeSixty’ and ‘Wellcome’ banners in HK; ‘Cold Storage’, ‘Giant’ and ‘Market Place’ in Singapore; and ‘Cold Storage’ and ‘Giant’ in Malaysia. Shipping directly to the supermarket chain rather than employing distributors is at the heart of New 4
Zealand Natural Exports’ business model, and is one of the company’s key differentiating factors. “It means we can give the buyers direct access to these products without having to go through a local distributor,” he asserts. “We also don’t impose any minimum order, meaning our buyers can order 15 cartons of a product or 10 pallets of a product. Alongside being able to offer a more competitive price, another key advantage is the service we provide to our buyers, which includes coordination of all products and consolidated shipments direct to the customer’s distribution centre (DC) in the destination country. Space being at a premium in countries like Singapore and HK, these DCs cannot hold large amounts of stock and therefore prefer to order monthly, and we’re happy to supply them in this way.” Premium brands
New Zealand Natural Exports started out with just five organic products, and over the years its range has expanded to include around 70 premium brands across three categories, as Mr Easton outlines: “We ship chilled products by air, such as fresh milk, free-range eggs and yoghurt, and we also supply frozen products, including fish, ice cream, bagels and pies. A big segment for us is ambient foods, which includes snacks, potato chips, muesli bars, drinks, breakfast cereals, NZ wine and sauces, among others.” The sheer range of high-quality, in-demand products the company is able to offer has been key to its success ‡
Made from free-range, grass-fed, prime New Zealand beef and venison, Canterbury Biltong presents a selection of premium-quality, export-grade biltong and biersticks.
Protein-packed (55%), low in carbohydrate and 96% fat free, these moreish meat snacks are free from gluten, dairy, preservatives and MSG. Creating its own spice blends gives Canterbury Biltong and its newer BITEMEat brands the edge in terms of flavour – and the addictive craving that great biltong triggers in all who try it. Boasting an 18-month shelf-life, all products are protected by high-spec foil packaging to ensure freshness – and further strengthen Canterbury Biltong’s
reputation as a premium-grade New Zealand meat snack supplier, both domestically and across an array of export markets today. Halal certification enables Canterbury Biltong to export to the Middle East, where it currently supplies the main supermarket chains in Bahrain, Quatar and Dubai. Open a pack of the outrageously tasty Canterbury Biltong and see why it is today New Zealand’s leading biltong brand.
www.canterburybiltong.co.nz
over the past 15 years, while its portfolio is today no longer limited to organic or natural products. “We look to supply whatever our buyers are looking for,” he affirms. “If I see something new emerging in one of our target markets, I don’t want our buyers to start looking elsewhere – I want to be the one to supply them with it. While we have 70 active brands today, we actually have over 100 brands available that can be exported if our buyers decide they want them.” Mr Easton goes on to provide a few examples of New Zealand products that his firm is proud to ship today. “Pic’s Peanut Butter is 100-per-cent peanuts and nothing else, which is a big advantage in a sector where many of the products incorporate additives and additional ingredients. Another segment is New Zealand honey, and the brand Nelson Honey features a range of honeys that sell very well. RJ’s liquorice is a confectionery brand that sells particularly well, while another large-volume brand for us is a potato chip brand called Bluebird. These are all brands that we’ve been supplying on a long-term basis.” Perfectly positioned
The company conducts its operations from an office within the premises of its freight forwarder, Kuehne+Nagel – a leading logistics group with a global presence – which itself is situated next to Auckland Airport. “While our airport-adjacent location is a major advantage, Kuehne+Nagel’s worldwide presence means that for any country to which we may wish to export our products, they’ll have an office located there,” Mr Easton reports. Furthermore, in 2019 Kuehne+Nagel invested in a major new warehouse building in Auckland, installing a huge bank of cold stores and freezers operating at various temperatures, as well as loading docks capable of loading around 30 containers at any one time. “It’s wonderful for our business to be situated right here with them and to be benefiting from such facilities,” he advises. “In fact, there are only two other exporters located within the building that have direct access to their products; all other firms are offsite, so we feel quite privileged to be
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right here and believe it’s important to our business.” As well as sourcing, quality-checking and supplying products to its customers, New Zealand Natural Exports organises promotions such as product sampling and discount events, while also running an in-store merchandising programme. Mr Easton elaborates: “Every supermarket in the world has what’s known as a ‘planogram’, which is essentially a shelf-byshelf plan of how products should be set out within the store. Often those plans are not being enforced, and this can be for a variety of reasons – from selling out of a particular product, to a delayed delivery, or even a poor job by the store’s manager. Our merchandisers will visit the stores, carry out checks, report their findings and make recommendations to the store manager, to ensure our products are being displayed in the manner intended.” Strategic merchandising is the final step in a stringent quality control process, which addresses each product and market individually to ensure the very best match, as Mr Easton explains: “Even though New Zealand has extremely high quality and safety standards when it comes to food, they are not the same as those in Singapore or Hong Kong. The rules differ for each and every product, in terms of the percentage of an ingredient that it can contain, for example, or what preservatives can be used, so we ensure that before we present a product, it is actually fit for the buyer’s market – and it takes quite a lot of effort and diligence to ensure that the food meets the importing country’s standards,” he tells us. “Moreover, when products come in to us we check every pallet before it is loaded into the container, to ensure there’s been no label or barcode change, that it meets the minimum ‘Best Before’ date, and so on – and this ensures that when it gets to the other side it can go on the shelf straight away,” he adds. “Beyond that, we ensure that all certification of organic products remains current, to make sure the NZ companies producing the products are up-to-date with their certifications, in alignment with our commitment to our buyers.” ‡
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Connecting through the pandemic
Becoming a one-stop shop is something that New Zealand Natural Exports has worked hard to achieve, while forming strong relationships with its buyers has undoubtedly cemented the company’s success in the Asian market, notes Mr Easton: “Every couple of months I have a conversation with our clients about new products, consumer trends, what is or isn’t selling, and what products require promotion. 2020 has obviously been a very unusual year – but while I might not go and visit the customer, I might instead spend a few days in the stores themselves, looking at products from our competitors in countries like Australia and the UK. I strongly believe in the importance of spending time in the market, on the shop floor.” Of course, communicating with the customer differently has not been the only change felt by the business since the onset of the pandemic. “At first there was an increased demand for all sorts of products
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that our clients could not get elsewhere due to supply issues and factory closures resulting from outbreaks in various countries,” he recalls. “However, the situation has since settled down and we are observing a trend in demand that is increasingly shifting towards healthy, plant-based, organic and vegan produce.” With natural and organic the starting point for Mr Easton when he first commenced food exports, his firm is well positioned as a specialist in the segment to tap into that growing demand. “Certainly, the plantbased, organic, vegan trend continues to gain pace,” he affirms. “So too does the ‘free-from’ movement – that is, free from preservatives, artificial colours, additives, sugar, and so on.” Adding value as a nation
Geographically speaking, demand remains strong for the company’s products across Asia, where Mr Easton is currently in discussions with buyers in
Myanmar and Vietnam. “Prior to the pandemic we were exploring opportunities in South America, too,” he reveals. “I believe the UK could also be an interesting market for us, going forward. We do a little exporting to the UK at present, although we would like to ramp up that activity. NZ and the UK are in the final stages of agreeing a trade deal, so we are hopeful for opportunities there.” Back in Asia, Myanmar is a prospective frontier market in terms of consumer goods – and this is certainly on New Zealand Natural Exports’ radar, too, as Mr Easton outlines. “I was actually one of the first New Zealanders to visit a supermarket chain in Myanmar to explore what they had in store. There is only one real supermarket chain catering to the high end – we’ve already been to visit them, and they’re very keen. We’re going through samples and pricing with them at the moment, and we’re very confident
that we’ll see success in that venture.” Going forward, New Zealand has a clear opportunity to expand upon its role as a net food exporter, and Mr Easton is ready to help facilitate that transition. “NZ has been very good at exporting full carcasses of livestock, alongside bulk milk powder and bulk butter – however, we’ve been less successful as a nation at exporting high-end finished products, as our firm is trying to do,” he reflects. “Our message to our potential suppliers across the country would be that there’s certainly a market out there for good quality New Zealand products – and we are indeed getting offered more new products all the time. However, for NZ as a whole it remains a long-term goal to be exporting more high-end consumer products as opposed to bulk commodities. It’s all about adding value within the country – and in our small way, we’re trying to contribute to that effort,” Mr Easton concludes. o
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3 Verissimo Drive, Auckland Airport Auckland 2022, New Zealand Office: +64-9-255-5870 Mobile: +64-21-674161
http://nznaturalexports.co.nz
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