Support sweetens business
Post on: 2011-11-02 By: admin
Christchurch business J FriendCo NZ Artisan Honey has been busyusing New Zealand Trade and Enterprise post-quake support funding to push sales and secure new opportunities in Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Japan.
After the earthquake NZTE provided funding for quake-hit Canterbury businesses to travel overseas to reassure customers and business partners they could still supply.
The company produces certified organic single-varietal honey and has just picked up two New Zealand Food awards.
Jeremy Friend said that funding gave it a huge leg-up to strengthen relationships with its overseas distributors. He would like to see more of that sort of Government support for small businesses.
The honey maker has been exporting to Australia for two years and in the last couple of months sales had really started to accelerate with the help of NZTE funding, he said.
"We basically had to get over there ... to support the product, get in stores, see buyers and push our distributor along.
"We've just got to the point now where the product is selling really well. People are starting to pick up on us, we are starting to get a real following in Australia."
The Christchurch honey maker's products are stocked in department store David Jones in Australia and its sales across the Tasman are up 300 per cent on this time last year. That translates into between one and two pallets of honey every six weeks, which Friend describes as "reasonable-sized orders on a nice regular basis".
It has also this week arrived on the shelves of premium London department store Harvey Nichols, thanks in part to NZTE putting Friend in touch with the right people in London.
Harvey Nichols will take NZ Artisan Honey's full range of products for its seven London stores as well as its three or four pop-up food stores leading up to Christmas. London food retailers Wholefoods and Planet Organic have just confirmed they will stock the honey range as well.
"Those are the premium stores we want our product to be in," Friend said.
Friend also visited the business's Hong Kong distributor after the quake and that has led to the possibility of a distribution agreement into mainland China. "So we've possibly picked up a contract into mainland China," Friend said.
A Japanese distributor was also trialling the honey.
Between Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and possibly Japan, the honey manufacturer will be kept "pretty busy".
He and partner Sharyn Woodnorth currently employ two staff members at their Sydenham office, and one contract sales person in Auckland, and look to hire more staff next year.
At the recent New Zealand Food Awards in Auckland, the certified carboNZero honey maker received the Westpac small or emerging enterprise award, and a Gourmet Award for two of its honeysWild Thyme and Vipers Bugloss.
"It's a real confidence booster especially after we've been through a pretty rough year, it's nice to be coming through at the other end."
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Article original from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/business/5873275/Support-sweetens-business
