16th October 2023 By Bridget O'Connell | bridget@foodticker.co.nz | @foodtickernz
A tech entrepreneur-led plant-based startup, which recently drafted in former Fix & Fogg export specialist Sarah Sherriff, is getting ready for the butter big-time.
Herbivore was founded by chief executive Craig Brown after he sold his previous B2B motoring industry sales platform, AutoPlay, to a UK buyer in 2018. This saw him spend some time in the UK, and take a personal – and what is now professional – turn into the world of vegan food.
Discovering a mismatch between the quality and the price of bovine butter compared with plant-based products “made my commercial side start cranking,” Brown said.
“The early desire was to do something that was a fast-moving commodity that we could really add some value to. And if we can add some value and build a really good product, we could make a significant difference to the environment as well.”
In 2020, Brown and his wife – a chef – returned to New Zealand to work on a coconut-based butter, Covid-19 notwithstanding. A contract manufacturer was commissioned in the Philippines, and some initial customers were secured in foodservice.
“We did a commercial trial with some foodservice providers with our 1kg sheets, and finalised what is the fifth iteration of the product. We wanted to make sure we had it right before we went into our retail blocks.”
That happened earlier this year, with 225g blocks rolling into 11 Foodstuffs and now a Bin Inn store, which Bay of Plenty-based Brown secured direct, with the Bin Inn being his local.
That is now likely to quickly scale up, with the three-year-old company this weekend bagging the small supplier category in the Foodstuffs Emerging Supplier competition. The win is set to fast-track Herbivore’s ranging into New World stores nationwide, with the 225g blocks having an RRP of $5.99.
In the meantime, Brown and Sherriff, who started lending her expertise to the business in August, are also putting irons in the fire overseas for a ‘global-from-day-one’ proposition.
“We are working with food service distribution teams in Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand,” Brown said, with trials for products such as croissants and Danish pastries hopefully converting into orders.
“We’re a wee way away from being able to prove this, but we’re working on being a 100-tonne-a-month business. And I don’t think that 100 tonnes is going to come out of New Zealand, so we need to look further afield as well.”
With this in mind, Herbivore was also at the giant Anuga trade fair for food and beverages held in Cologne, Germany, earlier this month, testing the “competitive” Northern Hemisphere waters, and some product is out for trial with a large Australian cookie manufacturer.
“We find that easier – to break the back with foodservice, get some volume,” Brown said.
“It gives us some cash flow, then we can look at the retail after that.”
