Business Leader of the Year nominees: My Food Bag founders

Nadia Lim (left), Theresa Gattung and Cecilia Robinson (right) have served more than nine million meals.

This week we are celebrating excellence in leadership as we publish the nominees for the 2015 Business Leader of the Year. The winner will be revealed on Saturday in the Weekend Herald.

My Food Bag moved from curious start-up to storming transtasman success this year, expanding into Australia and nudging $100 million in sales less than three years after its founding.

In May 2013, entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson, former Telecom boss Theresa Gattung and Masterchef NZ winner Nadia Lim founded the recipe-and-ingredient delivery business.

It now has 30,000 customers in nine cities across Australasia, most of whom are on recurring subscriptions. More than nine million meals had been served, each overseen by Lim and relying on locally sourced and free-range ingredients.

The company shoulder-tapped former Telecom director, and Saatchi & Saatchi chief Kevin Roberts in March to come on board as chairman and minority shareholder, expanding the horizons of a business that was just beginning to take its first tentative steps overseas.

By the end of 2015 the company announced it had more than doubled its customer base over the past year. It now has 30,000 customers in nine cities across Australasia, most of whom are on recurring subscriptions. More than nine million meals had been served, each curated by Lim and relying on locally sourced and free-range ingredients.

The company's growth has seen it become, almost overnight, New Zealand's third-biggest food retailer behind supermarket giants Progressive Enterprises and Foodstuffs.

Gattung, who provided much of the firm's start-up capital, has said growth has been funded internally from earnings, meaning she and Lim and Robinson have avoided the start-up dilemma of trading capital for control and remain on track to steer their own destiny.

Although the US and European markets are already served by similar business models, the relatively virgin territory of Australia - as well as the developing local market - means My Food Bag is a refreshingly non-tech company to watch in 2016.