Marton company Speirs Foods wins at Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards

Spiralised beetroot, zucchini and carrot are packed into The Whole Mix medley pack at Speirs Foods' Marton factory.

A fresh approach to noodles has won Marton-based Speirs Foods a gold medal in the 2018 Outstanding New Zealand Food Producer Awards.

The winning product was The Whole Mix spiralised zucchini noodles, part of the company's range of the first fresh vegetable noodles on the New Zealand market. Speirs also received silver medals for its butternut and medley noodles.

"Having only launched the brand in February we're excited with the response from consumers and the retail trade with all key supermarket head offices taking on the products," marketing manager Belinda Bonnor said.

"What started out as an idea to trial the noodles in a few stores got big fast. When the supermarkets decided to roll them out across multiple stores we had to get a spiraliser machine to deliver the volume and it's been all go to get the noodles made, packaged and off to our customers.

"We source our ingredients from local growers and suppliers (as available), create the products at our Marton factory and sell them throughout the country."

The new The Whole Mix brand includes vegetable noodles, grab and go salads with protein and side dishes in line with changing food trends.

Speirs Foods' award-winning vegetable noodle products.

Speirs Foods, previously known as Country Choice, was established in the mid-1970s to process salads for a chain of restaurants. A Whanganui supermarket then started buying the salads and the business expanded into supplying salads to supermarkets throughout New Zealand.

The company now produces about 70 product lines, including salads and cut vegetables. It has about 80 staff and the factory works six days a week.