Old Fashioned Food cooks up export success

By DITA DE BONI

It's not agriscience, microchips or intellectual property rights to a map of human DNA, but it earns a Kiwi company millions of export dollars nevertheless.

It is, in a word, dessert. More than eight tonnes of chocolate, toffee and date, and golden syrup puddings are cooked up by the South Auckland-based Old Fashioned Food company each day, with 70 per cent of that load destined for supermarket shelves in Britain, Australia, Hong Kong and Canada.

The company has supplied its major overseas client - British supermarket chain Sainsbury's - with its single-serve, self-saucing puds for around 18 months. That order was significantly expanded recently when Sainsbury's asked Old Fashioned to augment its usual consignment with 250,000 low fat puddings which will be rebranded under the Sainsbury label Be Good To Yourself.

The company has doubled in size for three years running, expects to top $30 million in turnover in the next few years, and says those returns could be trebled by a successful entry into the United States.

Managing director Ross MacKenzie says that if a New Zealand company can storm the world with a simple, self-saucing pudding product, "there are hundreds of other opportunities for other exporters."

"The secret is to do something better than what is already being done," he says with the conviction of a man perfectly pleased with his profitable pudding plunder of overseas markets.

The product, which began life as the staple of a cottage industry in Nelson, is named after its creator, Aunt Betty.

The real Aunt Betty's brother, Fred Willets, was down on his luck and had lost some money in the property bust of the early 90s before he decided to use his sister's popular recipe and rebuild his fortunes.

From selling the single-serve puds to flea markets and restaurants, the business went fully commercial in 1996.

It shifted to Auckland, establishing itself in the old Auckland Mill Co-op building in Penrose, and Mr MacKenzie, a food scientist, set about growing export markets.

The company has been focused on exporting to "the ex-British Empire countries" to date, he says.

"In England alone, the total steamed-pudding market is worth $200 million. Canned puddings, which are our main competitors, make over $80 million."

The company admits things aren't always easy. Past errors include not picking the right agent in the notoriously difficult US market, and having to redesign its previous, rather forgettable, packaging four times.

And when pressed, Mr MacKenzie admits the company's television advertisement, featuring senior citizens squabbling like children over dessert, had to be taken off in New Zealand because of the number of complaints - "although it got us noticed: and although it was popular in Australia, because the actors were Australian."

But cringe-worthy advertising aside, Mr MacKenzie is unconvinced that New Zealand food manufacturers cannot make a fist of export markets, even given exchange-rate difficulties.

"We are very competitive on costs. Even into the UK where we have to pay 20 per cent in duties and, obviously, high freightage, we still come out ahead. English manufacturers have to pay three times what we do for butter, and double for sugar, for example.

"We do have to pay more for some equipment, with the low exchange rate, but we are still doing better with the low dollar.

"Our biggest problem is funding growth, both in terms of investing in new equipment and working capital."

"But we're confident we could break the $100 million mark in the next 10 years, all going well."