Kiwi comes home for taste test

By Libby Middlebrook

Chris White is in his home-town, Auckland, for two days - and he's got ice cream on his mind.

New Zealand residents have slurped their way through millions of dollars of Movenpick products, and the 38-year-old is here to find out why the ice cream has been so popular.

"It's just the best ice cream ever, and New Zealanders have been really keen on it for the last 12 years," said Mr White, managing director of Movenpick's Asia Pacific division.

"We are about to launch into Australia and we want to find out why it's been so popular here."

For the past 24 months, Mr White has been scooting back and forth across Asia Pacific, finding new markets and business opportunities for the Swiss-based company.

He left New Zealand to work in Asia almost 20 years ago, and set up Movenpick's Asia Pacific office in 1997. He has since increased the tiny division's annual turnover from $2.4 million to $84 million.

That is a big achievement for a man who described himself as a painfully timid child who grew up in Mt Roskill on social welfare with his solo mum.

"These days I'm more of a demanding person, which probably doesn't make me a very nice person to work for sometimes, but it's helped me throughout my career."

Mr White started his career in Auckland at Bates, an international advertising agency. He was wooed to the company's Hong Kong office several years later to take on an account manager's role.

"The only reason I wanted to work in advertising is because I figured they earned more money and the girls were pretty attractive. The amount of money that I got offered was about three times more than I was earning in New Zealand."

At the age of 27, Mr White moved to Coca-Cola's Hong Kong-based marketing division. In his spare time he completed a law degree from London University.

But after nearly 10 years he felt ready to take on a regional position within the consumer goods industry. "There's nowhere in the world with Coca-Cola that you can go and do a start-up because the product is everywhere. It was a great company to work for, but you've got to do your time. There was no way they were going to put a 35-year-old in a regional job."

Movenpick, however, had built up its European business and wanted to expand into other markets instead of simply licensing companies to manufacture, distribute and sell products. The company, which manufactures coffee, yoghurt and wine, offered Mr White the Asia-Pacific job.

Working alone for six months in Hong Kong, Mr White set up a business plan for his new employers. Two years later the division has 35 staff. Turnover has topped $80 million and Movenpick products are sold in at least 10 countries throughout the region.

"Marketing is really simple. There's just a few basic rules you need to follow, like building acceptability through advertising."

New Zealand has benefited from the division's growth as well.

Invercargill-based dairy company Southern Fresh Milk has just signed a $60 million deal to manufacture Movenpick ice cream for Asia-Pacific.

"When I deal with New Zealand businesspeople they don't seem to understand why we would choose a country like New Zealand to manufacture ice cream. New Zealand might not be the cheapest place in the world to manufacture, but it might be the most efficient because of the level of expertise that's here."

Meanwhile, the occasional business trip to New Zealand is all the country is likely to see of Mr White.

"I can earn a lot more money outside of New Zealand - in excess of $800,000. What would I earn here? ... $120,000 and drive a Holden Commodore. I wouldn't choose to live here now. My roots are kind of more in Europe now."