Fiber Fresh founder Michael Bell (front) with sons Matthew (left) and Bob (right) who have joined the company. PHOTO/ STEPHEN PARKER
From camels to race horses and calves, it is leading the way when it comes to animal nutrition. But now, after 30 years of flying under the radar, Rebecca Malcolm talks to a groundbreaking Reporoa company starting to take its place in the spotlight.
It is a company that is making a name for itself around the world, but driving through Reporoa you might blink and miss Fiber Fresh feeds.
There are no flashy signs one might expect for the head office of a company that is reaching around the globe, with offices dotted in various countries.
In fact, there are no signs at all to give away the operation and what goes on in the big sheds that are in the background.
The only sign marking the entrance of this company is one warning drivers to keep off the grass.
Built from the ground up by founder Michael Bell, the company is celebrating three decades in operation.
It is a great Kiwi success story of a farmer with big dreams who wanted to achieve a global business, all the while wanting to keep it firmly rooted in the family and the land it began on.
But Michael admits he has deliberately kept out of the spotlight despite the firm's success.
"Ever since the early days we've been a family business. We're quite protective over it."
That success sees the family employing more than 50 people - including a good swag of family members - as the largest exporter of horse and calf feed in the country, with offices now in Japan and Dubai.
Today they produce about 20,000 bags of feed a day, the same amount they produced in the whole of the first year.
A Taranaki lad originally, Michael was shipped off to Reporoa by his parents in the mid-1960s to make his way in the world.
The way son Bob tells the story, back then Reporoa was the middle of nowhere and the land he was sent to farm is the same place the head office now sits on.
"He came up and broke in the farm. The nice thing is we still have the original building."
While farming, his dad always had a more adventurous streak.
Wanting to develop something different, Michael began by growing alfalfa (lucerne) and making hay for race horses to supplement his sheep and beef farming.
He then realised that by drying the product to make hay much of the important nutritional value was being lost, so Michael began experimenting to find a better way to preserve the goodness in the feed.
That experimenting eventually led to the product they have today, Michael says.
"The vision and end game came first - that was, to have a global company and change the traditional approach to feeding horses around the world. The difficult part was forging the road to get there. We've made nearly every mistake possible, but the product has pulled us through because it got results, more than we ever realised at first."
He admits that as a sheep farmer trying to tell racehorse breeders what to feed their horses was not the easiest thing.
"We knew nothing about the equine industry. Here was this sheep farmer trying to feed horses. The initial learning curve was quite tough and we made every mistake you could make."
It is that desire to be the "little battler" changing thinking that has helped lead to his success.
Those mistakes proved a valuable path, and as they forged their way making a name for themselves they moved into the calf-rearing side of things.
He says the firm has come along in leaps and bounds since the early days but that wish to be a global business was always there.
"I always wanted to think people achieve what they always aspire to."
The company had only been around a couple of years when they started exporting the feed to Japan.
He says back then the potential of exporting was little known, but in future it will be the greatest part of the business. At the moment, about 30 per cent of the total product heads overseas.
They quickly made a name for themselves as the feed for the top racehorses in the country. Name any major race meet, from the high stakes races in Japan to the Melbourne Cup, and chances are there are bags of the company's feed there.
"We are literally feeding the top horses."
It led to opening the Japan office and more recently an office in Dubai.
They have now also made the step to feeding racing camels.
Michael says because the product was so different they have pumped more than $1.5 million into research.
"We did our first research and development 25 years ago, but we didn't realise it was that then."
He says they have learned a lot since then on the value of getting external help for that
research, and have worked with the likes of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Callaghan Innovations, Massey University and Ag Research to prove their product does what it says it does.
"Research is now just part of what we do. We've come along in leaps and bounds as a company."
Part of that he credits to the people who have been involved in the company over the years.
He jokes about selling out to the big corporations.
There have been offers, he laughs, and while they are nice to consider it is not about making the quick buck.
"Here we are a little family business that is something unique and different and changing ideas."
If it was all about the money, he says that he might have taken it years ago.
"We've got too many exciting things on to sell out."
While he admits he spent a long time trying to spin all the plates, he has now got his sons working with him.
It is easy to tell Michael is clearly chuffed his sons have followed his footsteps into the family business, which his wife and daughter have also worked in, although both are clear there was never any pressure to do that.
"We never asked him to work in the business," says Bob.
"He told us to go out and enjoy life. We both went off to university but eventually both of us came back.
"We've always been drawn to it."
Son Matthew says the road always led back to the family business.
"We're both connected to this. There's been blood, sweat and tears. We probably couldn't do anything else."
And while Michael is seeing his dreams come true, he's got no plans to stop now.
Another big goal is to open a facility overseas, , in addition to their Reporoa site, to increase production.
"The dream is coming to fruition. We are a family company and working the land is still a hugely important part of what we do."
Business Basics
- The business was established 30 years ago by the Bell family, most who are still employed by the firm, and now employs 50 people.
- It focuses on two key categories - equine feed for all horse types and ages, and calf feed which focuses on the calf's primary development phase over the first 12 weeks.
- The company is the largest exporter of animal feeds in New Zealand exporting to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan and Dubai, among others.
- All the lucerne crops are grown locally in Reporoa.
- It is a fully integrated company controlling all aspects of the process, from cropping harvesting and manufacturing to the sales.
