Selling hotcakes a real cakewalk

Inge Vercammen (left) and Marcel Naenen are on to a good thing

Kiwis' appetite for pancakes is pushing retirement plans further into the future for Belgian couple Marcel Naenen and Inge Vercammen.

The pair behind the Marcel's brand of crepes and hotcakes, in supermarkets nationally, migrated to New Plymouth seven years ago seeking the quiet life.

Unable to leave behind their heritage completely, however, they launched Van Dyck Fine Foods - named after Naenen's mother - to bring traditional European-style crepes to these shores.

And having just launched Marcel's Blinis - Russian savoury bite-sized pikelets - and with plans for more Belgian-style products in the pipeline, early retirement looks unlikely.

Naenen, an electrician by trade, spent the 15 years prior to arriving here as a bakery equipment engineer in Europe with his own company, NV Denatec.

In a country where crepes are as big as burgers are in the United States, he found Belgian bakers cooking crepes manually, inspiring him to come up with an automated crepe line.

With the help of French engineers and a Dutch machine builder, he brought his vision to reality and sold the new machine throughout Europe as well as Canada and Japan.

By 1999, having spent years travelling for business and with little family time, he and Vercammen decided to sell the business and leave Europe for some "quality of life".

However, Naenen "felt too young to do nothing" and, having seen no waffles or crepes in the local supermarkets, decided to introduce them.

His best Belgian customer shared his recipe for Flemish crepes, moister and slightly thicker than French crepes, and Naenen soon found himself back working with his crepe machine - this time as the baker.

Today, the 30m-long machine runs 11 hours a day, producing 5000 crepes or 6000 hotcakes an hour, in a purpose-built factory below their New Plymouth home.

The crepes are untouched by human hands. The batter is mixed, dolloped on to a hot plate, flipped on to a second hot plate, cooled in a 10m tunnel, frozen in a 10-level blast freezer, stacked, then vacuum sealed.

This process can take from nine minutes to one hour, depending on which product is on the line.

Sweet and plain crepes were the first to be launched. Now the range also includes a gluten-free version, Crepe Alaska (icecream-filled crepes) and hotcakes in blueberry, chocolate and plain flavours.

Naenen hopes to attract new customers with the blinis and plans for other hot-plate products such as waffles are in the pipeline.

Supermarkets supply the biggest custom with 80 per cent of sales. The crepes are sold under their own name, as well as some house brands. Wholesalers comprise 15 per cent of sales. Airlines are also customers.

Last year's turnover of $2 million was up 32 per cent on the year before.

Naenen has no direct competitor in crepes but competes with Quality Bakers and Tip Top in hotcakes.

In the early days, Naenen spent only a few days a week baking, as he travelled the country cold-calling supermarkets.

Building up the market took dedication before people started appreciating the product.

The couple established Van Dyck with their own money, are the sole shareholders and have found establishing a business here a breeze compared with an "over-regulated" Europe. "When you decide to build a factory here, five months later you can move in," said Naenen.

Staffing was difficult in the early days when they could only offer part-time hours. They now employ eight fulltimers and are about to take on a Belgian baker.

Naenen, 53, takes care of engineering and is general manager while Vercammen, 55, a former psychoanalyst, takes care of marketing.

Honest feedback has been difficult to ascertain due to a Kiwi tendency not say what is really felt.

"They are polite and will say how nice something is even if it isn't, but that doesn't necessarily help to build a good business."

How long the pair remain involved in the business will depend on their health, but at the moment they are focusing on building a more regular export market and also plan to increase production amounts.