Havoc has tripled its output of free-range pork products since shifting its butchery premises to Dunedin in 2014.
"Happy pork" is the tagline for the free-range products from Havoc Farm Pork. ODT senior reporter Simon Hartley talks to Havoc's Dunedin manager Dee Hayes about the company's impressive growth over the past four years.
Dunedin-based Havoc Farm Pork has been on the trot for a total of 14 years, and has almost doubled its staff and tripled its output of free-range pork products since shifting its butchery premises to Dunedin in 2014.
Its staff numbers in Dunedin have risen from five to eight, plus some temps, while the Havoc farm in the Hunter Hills near Waimate employs four staff.
Havoc's Dunedin manager, Dee Hayes, said the company had changed hands twice since 2003 but "had gone full circle" and was back with the original owners.
Havoc farm policy had always been minimal intervention and no antibiotics or growth promotants.
She had worked in administration on the Havoc farm, but with expansion under way and the shift of the butchery to Dunedin, she and her husband and two children saw it as an opportunity to relocate to Dunedin, Ms Hayes said.
"We've now established a lot of regulars who we make up orders for, and they come and collect it," Ms Hayes said.
Havoc also supplied supermarkets, restaurants and cafes and had an online ordering service.
Ms Hayes was adamant both the farm and butchery had the capacity to not only meet demand but also expand. The Dunedin butchery was more than twice the size of the previous Hunter Hills butchery and had underused space.
"That's our aim - to expand and get more staff," she said. Claire Nelson, one of six female staff at the butchery, was looking forward to taking up an apprenticeship at the site, while Sandra Clark had been employed to give marketing a boost."Hopefully, there will be more apprenticeships with expansion," Ms Hayes said.
She was recently concerned to read in the ODT about looming staff cuts in Dunedin, with a total of 37 job losses threatened at Foodstuffs supermarkets, The Warehouse and Mitre 10, plus the pending loss of up to 360 jobs when Cadbury closed.
It was a "really tough environment out there" for businesses with fewer than 20 staff, Ms Hayes said.
"You have to find your niche [and] choose the right suppliers and distributors.
"We've an advantage because we can tailor our cuts to meet whatever the customers want," Ms Hayes said.
Aside from cooked and uncooked hams, Havoc produces sausages, such as chorizo, bratwurst and andouille, myriad fresh cuts, hocks, eye fillets and dry-cured bacon, including products which are nitrate and gluten free.
Aside from retail sales at its butchery premises in Kaikorai Valley, Havoc is still a regular stallholder at the Otago Farmers Market in Dunedin, but last December closed its High St premises, citing a lack of foot traffic and parking.
From selling one pig's worth of products at the farmers market in 2003, the company had ramped that up to 20 pigs' worth.
About four years ago the company had 90 sows but now farmed a drift of 300 sows, each of which produced six to 12 piglets a litter, which after weaning were fed on a diet of grain, cheese and cider vinegar. In their free-range environment, they were "happy because they're being left to their own devices", Ms Hayes said.
As to what created the unique Havoc flavour, Ms Hayes said that was down to the crate-free, outdoor lifestyle of the sows and piglets. Also, piglets were farrowed in huts as opposed to the much-criticised farrowing crates. Havoc hams' distinctive taste was also the result of cold-smoking using manuka.
While ham sales were "pretty quiet" during the year-round operation, Havoc sold "700-plus" in the pre-Christmas period, and extra staff were hired to cope with the busy time, Ms Hayes said.
The premises in Kaikorai Valley Rd received 60 to 75 pig carcasses for breaking down a week.
While on-farm boars were used to service first-time sows, they were subsequently serviced by accredited artificial insemination, to maintain the stock as a "closed herd".