Surprise gift fires up desire to chase dream

Keen hunter Rob Beard of Wild Game Salamis in Clive has turned a hobby into a successful business. Photo / Glenn Taylor

A good deed paid off for Rob Beard of Wild Game Salamis.

His wife Lara had given birth at Hawke's Bay Hospital and at 11pm he met an elderly man who needed a lift home after being discharged from suffering a heart attack.

"I said sure, sweet as. As it turned out he was a butcher and had all these recipes," he said.

Mr Beard was a keen hunter, already making his own venison salamis as a hobby. A surprise gift of Garth Curry's recipes three months later was very welcome.

Mr Curry, who owned a butcher shop in Bay View, has since passed on but his boudin noir (French black pudding) recipe is alive and well, with wild venison substituted for beef/mutton.

All other recipes used by Wild Game Salamis are Mr Beard's.

Everyone he gave a sample to asked for more and the viticulturist decided to turn his hobby into a business, quitting his job in March last year.

"I went to the bank and got a mortgage holiday for three months. I pretty much said I am going to chase the dream.

"They backed me and said, go for it, so now we supply 30-odd restaurants around New Zealand, including top eateries such as Logan Brown in Wellington and O'Connell St Bistro in Auckland.

He said they "hit the ground running" but his family had relied solely on his income, making the stakes high.

"It was scary, there was a lot at stake but you just make it happen ..."

"There were heaps of 100- hour weeks, easy. It was pretty intense with a lot of sleepless nights. I was always a firm believer it was going to work, it was just a case of making it work. Some days I didn't think it would work because there wouldn't be enough business to cover everything. We had to borrow and skimp ..."

He said Hawke's Bay restaurants, such as Elephant Hill, Black Barn and Mr D were "really massive" in supporting the business early on.

Operating from a commercial kitchen surrounded by farmland on Lawn Rd near Clive, Wild Game Salamis is only open for retail on Sundays, the same day it also operates a Farmers Market stall at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds in Hastings.

While most of its business is supplying restaurants and delicatessens smoked salamis, black puddings, chorizos and sausages, the Farmers Market was good for business.

"It's good exposure and it's good cash flow - cash straight away with no invoicing. You are getting to know your people too. People eating at Bay Espresso often asking where they can get the black pudding for themselves."

They have no qualms about growing the business further - they never get tired of firing up the smoker every day. "We are really quite lucky ..."