Humble sausage gains panache

By ELLEN READ

When Branko Poznanovich started his business it produced a few kilos of sausages each week, now it churns out about three tonnes - enough to fill a small swimming pool.

Son Max Poznanovich has taken over the reigns of the operation, which aims to combine New Zealand's high quality meat with European style to produce a premium product.

That product, Branco's Sausages, is the brand name of the Auckland-based family company Bramax.

Established in 1995 by the South African immigrant, the business has grown substantially as consumers have adopted a more gourmet approach to sausages.

"We wanted to provide something a little different to the market full of mass-produced snarlers, a European styled sausage, a true boerewors [which means farmer's sausage], and to take that deli quality and style of sausage and make it widely available to the supermarket shopper," Max Poznanovich said.

The business is a family affair with mum Juanita on the payroll and the only other staff members being a brother and sister team who work in the processing room.

Max Poznanovich had been a butcher in Capetown before moving to New Zealand, but he had no plans to set up a meat firm here.

But when people discovered he could make the traditional sausages and biltong (dried beef) he got lots of requests.

He had a job packing decoders for Sky TV, but people used to come and ask him to make boerewors because they knew he was South African.

Then Pak 'N Save Botany Downs rang and asked him to supply some as their customers had been talking about them.

Branco's now supplies 60 North Island supermarkets, but marketing the product has been a big job.

"We've taken a foreign product into a new market and relentlessly promoted it.

"Because it's got a strange name, a funny colour and is priced higher than other sausages, instore demonstrations where people can actually taste them has been the way to go," Poznanovich said.

Initially the business shared premises but last September the family moved it to their own building. "We've grown organically, only as much as our capital allowed. We're quite debt averse but we've stretched ourselves a bit to get into the new premises," Poznanovich said.

He's confident it's the right move. The company broke even in its second year and while there are now more bills to cover, there's also been a 40 per cent increase in turnover in the past year.

The company has also just launched what it says is the first supermarket sausage (a boerewors style) to be granted the Heart Foundation's tick of approval.

Poznanovich said the lite sausage had 25 per cent less fat than normal snags. The company prides itself on using top-quality meat and fresh seasoning.

"We don't aim to compete with what's there. We're small, so we see a gap in the market and fill it," he said.

"Because we're small, we're more flexible so we can meet the market."

New Zealand is a nation of sausage lovers with 31.5 per cent of us indulging at least once per week.

Aucklanders alone eat an estimated 50.8 million sausages a year.