Small Business: Green, red and frozen gold with Kiwi Sorbet

Brendan Vercoe of Kiwi Sorbet is already thinking of ways he can utilise other non-export quality New Zealand fruit to tap into new markets.

Brendan Vercoe, founder of Kiwi Sorbet, talks to Tom Raynel about how his creation started as a different idea, and the potential opportunities for the business. Each Monday, we interview a small business owner, now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.

What is Kiwi Sorbet?

We make sorbets with this amazing dairy-like texture. Because of the high fruit content, which we don’t heat, you get the full flavour and nutrition of the fresh fruit. We’ve got three different varieties with these amazingly different flavours: the green, the gold, and the red kiwifruit.

The green’s more tangy and traditional, gold is sweeter and tropical, and red’s got these quite interesting berry flavours. We also make a more grainy, thicker feijoa version.

What inspired you to start the business?

I’ve got a long history with kiwifruit, going through the ups and downs, but I’m so passionate about it. If you look back at the history of kiwifruit, it’s just fascinating. These guys were pioneers, they created their own market selling fruit around the world. It’s just amazing that they’ve created a $5 billion industry from nothing.

I came to realise that with the success of the industry came a growing amount of fruit that’s not export quality. They only take the export-quality fruit, and because the industry’s growing so fast, they haven’t found ways to sell the grade two and three kiwifruit. I learned about this while I was working as a commercialisation manager at Plant & Food Research.

I was actually researching a way to make a freeze-dried green kiwifruit powder. I added a little bit of sugar syrup to the kiwifruit puree I was using and ended up creating this quite delicious sorbet. Funnily enough, I hated it, but then when I went to the gluten-free food festival with the powder and I took samples of the sorbet, everyone wanted the sorbet and wanted to buy it. So we’ve morphed into a kiwifruit sorbet company.

Brendan Vercoe, founder of Kiwi Sorbet, wanted to find a solution to deal with the growing amount of fruit that’s not export quality.

What did you create using the power?

We ended up creating a gut health powder from green kiwifruit which is called Gut Comfort. The science behind kiwifruit is phenomenal, and the fact is that it relieves constipation and feeds all the good bacteria in your gut; it is a legit superfood. I had the idea of taking it to the United States, which has the biggest digestive health issues, and the end goal was to get into Whole Foods.

After “Liberation Day”, the US market is not quite as predictable as it has been, so it’s going to be a significant investment to educate the market. Because we’ve found a little bit of a niche with Kiwi Sorbet, we’re just going to keep pushing on this for now.

Is the business self-funded?

It is, and it’s something I’ve learned through a few false starts. My vision for this is that it’s an intergenerational company. My daughter was with me at the Fine Food Show and the Food Show, and she’s actually a better salesperson than me. She’s only 11, but people want to talk to her, they don’t want to talk to me. I truly believe that if we can grow it as quickly as we can with our own investment, it takes the exit off the table.

The problem with investors is that as soon as you bring an investor on, they’re talking about the exit, and it takes the enjoyment away. Maybe it is an intergenerational company, who knows, but at least by having that control, I get to make the decisions. So we certainly won’t be bringing on capital too quickly if we can help it.

Kiwi Sorbet comes in three varieties, green, gold and red, with a popular feijoa sorbet also in its range.

What innovations or new products can you create from this idea?

Kiwifruit’s got a six-month shelf life, apples have a six-month shelf life, but a lot of these other fruits like berries, feijoas, it’s two to three weeks. The question is, how do you create an export industry from a product that’s so short in its lifespan?

What I’ve realised is that we can take those fruits global in this format because it’s got a 12-month shelf life, in terms of frozen. It’s working out what those quintessential New Zealand flavours are that we can take to the world, because it seems like the formulation with the small amount of sugar syrup just heroes those natural flavours.

What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?

I think take the business as far as you can by yourself. The second thing is if you are bringing in capital, be very conscious about the decision you’re making. As soon as you give up 50% of your company, you’ve lost control, and the vision you have for the company becomes someone else’s vision.

It feels like in New Zealand, it’s this race to get capital, when actually it should be, how far can you take the business as a founder?

Do you have a small business story you want to share? Send your pitches to tom.raynel@nzme.co.nz.

Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.