Small business: Herbivore’s plant-based coconut butter not just for vegans

Herbivore founder Craig Brown. The Bay of Plenty-based company makes plant-based butter. Photo / Supplied

Herbivore founder Craig Brown talks to the Herald about the motivation behind his award-winning plant-based butter and his plans to grow its global footprint.

What is Herbivore?

A world-class butter that’s made from coconuts. It comes in premium 225g packs for grocery and in 1kg sheets for food service.

What motivated you to start the business?

The planet. For us to have a positive impact and reduce emissions we need to address the big three things we (as individuals) can control: what we wear, our transport and the food we eat. Herbivore produces around half the emissions of dairy butter.

What’s as important is that consumers love it. Herbivore is a 1:1 butter replacement with a unique taste profile. It can be melted, made into sauces, used for baking — anything you’d do with bovine butter. Once people cook prawns or fish with Herbivore, very few go back to dairy butter.

What were you doing before starting Herbivore?

I set up an automotive B2B business called AutoPlay with a great friend of mine, Chris Nottingham. By the time we sold AutoPlay in 2019, it had been adopted by more than 80 per cent of New Zealand’s franchise motor vehicle dealers and expanded into Australia.

What process is involved in making Herbivore’s plant-based butter?

We purchase our coconut from sustainable, family-owned farmers in the Philippines. We have production teams there removing the coconut flesh from the coconut and drying it (this is called copra) and this is the base for our butter. We then naturally refine the copra, add the rest of our ingredients, blend and produce our butter.

How big is your team?

In New Zealand, we have a team of four working in the business daily plus a very cool chairman who keeps us all focused. Our incredible production team is based in the Philippines.

When did you start the business and how much has it grown?

In 2020, in the middle of lockdown. It was an interesting time as we couldn’t travel to the production plant, so, like so many of us, my online meeting skills grew! We are now on our fifth iteration of our butter. Once we had nailed down a truly winning formula, our orders with award-winning bakers went from 10kg per month to full pallets. Food service firms love the fact we are allergen-free and it’s a simple 1.1 replacement. We are used in top restaurant kitchens from Otago’s Amisfield to Onslow in Auckland and loads in between.

Where are Herbivore’s products stocked?

We are in 185 New World and Pak’nSave supermarkets. For bakers and chefs, we deliver our commercial sheets, which are designed for lamination, directly. We are more competitively priced than traditional butter sheets and have a fixed price — no more seasonal fluctuations in your food costs.

How have you funded the business?

There are five shareholders. We have all invested our own funds and are bootstrapping our growth. One day soon, we may need to consider outside investment — as growth demands it!

Herbivore's founder says despite some stereotypes, the product is no 'poor cousin' to bovine butter. Photo / Supplied

What have been your biggest challenges in business to date?

We have been pigeonholed. We are 100 per cent plant-based and proud of that fact. However, Herbivore is not a poor cousin to bovine butter and is not only suitable for vegans. More than 90 per cent of our customers are omnivores; they love Herbivore for the taste, texture and performance. Some people just won’t try us because we are plant-based — that’s frustrating!

What have been your highlights so far?

Two big wins: First, when we were still in our testing stage, Tart Bakery won New Zealand’s Supreme Vegan Pie Award, using our butter. The next day TVNZ did a feature on it and the judges said they wanted to raid the bakery to find out what their butter substitute was as it was so creamy and tasty. To achieve that at such an early stage of our journey was amazing.

Second, winning Foodstuffs’ Emerge award after only being on shelves for 10 weeks was an absolute dream and has led to us being stocked in supermarkets nationwide.

Where do you see the business in the next two to three years?

The global plant-based food market is projected to grow to US$85 billion by 2030. From our perspective, the plant-based opportunity has jumped from milk, across the dairy aisle to butter. We’re working on becoming a 100-tonne-a-month business and having a global footprint. We have started exporting into Asia, and are off next week to Europe and the UK. Our focus is growth in the B2B food service space and at the same time B2C through grocery – both are massive opportunities.

What’s your advice for others thinking about starting their own business?

Do it! Be very clear about your point of difference and why you’re doing what you’re doing – then hold on. It’s a hell of a ride!