Speirs continues to strengthen brand name

Speirs Group plant in Marton. Photo/File

The Marton-based Speirs Foods plant continues to provide a solid underpinning of the Speirs Group's financial performance.

The group has just announced a $2 million profit and the Marton food processing plant has played a leading role in that.

Speirs Foods is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Speirs Groups and continues to maintain a leading presence in the processing, distribution and marketing of fresh salads and related products throughout New Zealand.

Its latest financial result saw the Marton plant return a profit of $409,000 which is 85 per cent up on the previous year ($221,000) and its best result for some years. The profit lift has been pushed along by continued sales growth which created revenue of $16.2 million, up by 9 per cent on last year.

In November, the company said it had started marketing its own branded range of salads in one of the country's biggest supermarket chains.

Until now the Marton factory has been a major supplier of a wide range of bulk salad items to the Progressive Enterprises supermarket chain which includes the Countdown stores, as well as the Foodstuffs group (New World and Pak'n'Save stores).

But now Speirs Foods has its own branded range of pre-packed salads into 169 Countdown stores throughout New Zealand.

Chris Newton, the company's general manager, said the launch was the culmination of a significant project between the Marton factory and the Countdown deli category management team in Auckland.

The new product will be offered as premium coleslaw, potato salad, Italian salad and bean salad and it is the first time that Speirs Foods has been able to place its own brand on the shelves of Countdown stores.

Mr Newton said previous attempts at establishing a pre-packed salad range under its own brand had not been successful, mainly because the price point was too high for customers. He said there was potential to extend the range but this would depend on how well the new line-up performed.

Hundreds of tonnes of vegetables are cored, cut, shredded, washed, cooked, mixed and packed in the Lower High St factory nearly 24 hours a day, six days a week. The company pumps well in excess of $3 million in wages into the local economy.

Group chairman Keith Taylor said that the result has been achieved through the improved performance of the existing business and the successful re-entry into the finance business.

Mr Taylor said over the last two years the group had been looking for opportunities to get back into the the finance business to take advantage of the infrastructure, know-how and systems that Speirs had.

A new company, Advaro Financial Services, started trading in February this year providing funding for motor and vehicle and commercial plants to small and medium-sized businesses in New Zealand. Speirs has several decades of experience as a provider of vehicle funding to small to medium business enterprises prior to the sale of its finance business in September, 2008.