Top TV chef cooks up $3 million dish

Nadia Lim says she was drawn to something that would help people eat healthily. Photo / Natalie Slade

Masterchef winner Nadia Lim’s share in food and recipe delivery service has made her a millionaire.

The home-cooked success of recipe and ingredient delivery service My Food Bag has made Masterchef winner Nadia Lim New Zealand's first reality TV star millionaire.

Lim's one-fifth stake in the two-year-old business is, according to Weekend Herald calculations, worth at least $3 million.

Founded by Lim and her husband Carlos Bagrie, along with Cecilia Robinson and her husband James Robinson and former Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung, My Food Bag recently expanded in Australia and announced it had signed up its 15,000th subscriber. But success had not come without hard work and Lim said the first few months as the business started-up were tough, with long hours combined with no pay.

"Our lounge was just filled with boxes, stacked on top of each other. And every Tuesday night we would go to bed at 2am because Wednesday morning was when the recipe cards went to print," she said.

She said having the husbands also work in the business - and understand the time and focus required - had likely saved their marriages.

Work-life balance had improved as the business strengthened, although Lim seemed surprised, embarrassed and amused to hear her stake was likely worth millions and would possibly even be enough to allow her to buy a house in Auckland.

"Because I've never been a numbers person, I haven't even really thought of it that much. It probably hasn't sunk in yet," she said, laughing.

Lim, a dietician, said getting rich had never factored into her decision to go into business. "I'm not naturally a business person or a numbers person, but I was drawn to something that would help people eat healthily."

Gattung said she fronted up with seed capital, while Robinson provided a business plan and Lim her cooking expertise and profile. The initial split of company company shares was 40:40:20 between Gattung, Robinson and Lim, but everyone sold a few shares earlier this year to give former Saatchi & Saatchi boss Kevin Roberts a 1 per cent stake when he joined the board as chairman.

As for what these shares are worth, market participants and academics said valuations were based on multiples of annual earnings. While earnings numbers are not available for My Food Bag, an investment banker said a 10 per cent margin from revenue would give the business likely annual earnings of $5 million. A senior accounting professor said a conservative earnings multiplier of three was appropriate for a unlisted business, and these assumptions would combine to place a $15 million value on the business.

The banker said the lack of detailed internal information meant this estimate was quite rough, but there was "no doubt" Lim's stake was worth considerably more than $1 million. Gattung said the business was on track for revenues of $50 million this year, and had broken even six months ago meaning the expansion to Australia was being funded out of existing company cashflows.

Geoff Whitcher, founding director of the University of Auckland's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, expressed admiration for these numbers.

"To be at $50 million in revenue in such a short time, and to be cashflow positive? Bloody impressive," he said.

Talent agent and former New Zealand Idol judge Paul Ellis said Lim had pulled off the extremely rare trick of turning reality television success into both fame and fortune.

"I've watched her grow, and think she's incredibly astute. She's lined up all the pieces and used her profile in the right way."