Cooking up a world-beater

By GEORGINA BOND


The first time Pitango soups were stocked at a supermarket, owners Ofer and Yasmin Shenhav eagerly visited the store each evening to see how many had been sold.

Three years later, the organic soups have gained a loyal customer following and a 23 per cent share of the fresh chilled soup market.

With 15 staff now employed at a commercial kitchen in Mairangi Bay, Pitango brews enough soup to meet weekly orders from supermarkets nationwide.

Exports to Australia and Hong Kong make up 30 per cent of sales.

The flourishing business is a testament to the Shenhavs' hard work since arriving in New Zealand six years ago with only a backpack of clothes to their name.

Ofer, a chef, brought with him a rich culinary background, with gourmet food central to family life as he grew up in Israel.

When he arrived here he tried a stint in a central Auckland restaurant but found the food he was creating differed vastly to the flavours and philosophies he was used to.

Meanwhile, Yasmin, who was working as a dance teacher, was disappointed that she could not buy the organic food she liked and was particularly keen to feed to her two young sons.

She thought New Zealand's perception of organic food was "greeny, unappealing and expensive", but the pair believed they could change this and the idea for the business was born.

Ofer started making soups and prepacked salads from home in 2001, while Yasmin doorknocked supermarkets and health stores with samples.

The orders started to flow, giving them the green light to get serious about the business.

Production shifted to an approved kitchen at a badminton hall in Epsom.

Ofer recalls the early frenzy of working until 1am to make and pack the soup, then rising at 5am to load the products into a truck and deliver them to stores, where Yasmin often gave demonstrations.

The business was financed by Ofer's catering work and Yasmin recalls surviving from dollar to dollar as they built up slowly.

"We went from mountain to mountain, just climbing," she says.

Feedback from customers who enjoyed the product gave them a lift, and still does.

Pitango now has nine flavours of soup and launched a range of organic fresh pasta sauces this year.

They ditched the salad-making early on. Yasmin said the salad-to-go concept did not seem to take off among New Zealanders, but it helped them to gain entrance to the market.

Ofer said the business had three aims: to make a premium-quality product that was organic and affordable. They have stuck to these principles, despite knowing production would be more cost-effective if they took some shortcuts.

Most of the ingredients come from Hawkes Bay, although the pasta is imported from Italy.

The business is named after a small fruit with a "sweet, elegant taste" that grows in Israel.

Developing new recipes for next season is the present focus and they want to extend the product's shelf-life to enable exports further afield.

Pitango