Yummy Tummies hit spot

By ELLEN READ

What started as one woman's way of coping with her "culinary challenged" husband has turned into a thriving business with export opportunities.

Fran Hume used to work 12 to 14 hours a day in her corporate sales and marketing job while husband Dave looked after the children.

Anxiety about their constant diet of processed food prompted her to start cooking and freezing healthy meals for Dave to heat up.

That was two years ago, and as word spread among her family and friends, Hume's home kitchen became too small to meet the growing demand.

"At one stage I was in my own kitchen cooking 100 meals a day. It was mad," she said.

Confident there was a market for home-cooked frozen meals, Hume left her job and took the business to the next level.

A small restaurant in Coatesville was bought and opened for dinner five nights a week. During the day, Hume and her team of workers used its commercial kitchen.

A range of nine meals, each with vegetables, was devised and Yummy Tummies formed.

The name comes from the songs Hume once sang to son Benjamin to get him to eat his dinner.

The company slogan, For Busy Mummies (And Dads), sums up what Hume's trying to achieve - giving busy parents a convenient healthy meal option for their children based on traditional recipes.

The business took off and late last year she decided to contract out the cooking to Silverdale company FPL (Food Productions).

In the past couple of months, Hume has secured nationwide distribution in selected supermarkets and attracted praise from health experts impressed by her commitment to offering a convenient nutritional alternative fast food.

Production, sales and marketing also are handled by outside companies. Hume herself employs a team of nine women - all part time and all mothers - to do supermarket and show promotions.

Despite being a small business, Hume said she had not had any problems being taken seriously.

"I haven't been frightened of talking to anyone because I really believe in what we do," she said.

Taking herself and her business seriously meant others had little chance to do otherwise.

Hume's marketing background shines through in the three vegetable characters she created to promote her meals - Kip the carrot, Sweet Pea and Casey the corn. All Yummy Tummies meals contain these three vegetables.

Each character has a special personality and aims to teach children the nutritional value of their vegetable and its importance as part of a healthy diet. A Kids Club has been formed and is run via the Yummy Tummies website. It has more than 4000 members and some Auckland schools are registering their pupils.

Hume also runs a kids catering service offering healthy party food for children's events.

Busy as she is, she plans to expandthe company more. An inquiry via her website from an export company means Yummy Tummies meals will soon go on sale in the Cook Islands.

And longer term, Hume would like to license Yummy Tummies production in other countries.

Yummy Tummies