Sector: Food & Beverage

An innovative New Zealand company exporting around NZD10m worth of convenient steamed puddings to the United Kingdom each year has caught the eye of an international investment fund for its unique products, capable management, and proven success in the domestic and export markets.

The strategic investment of NZD6m by food and beverage-oriented Food and Agribusiness Investment Fund 2 (FAIF 2) came at a good time for Old Fashioned Foods. It enabled a buy out of its UK-based associate and expansion of its New Zealand manufacturing plant ready for the next growth phase.

Old Fashioned Foods has iconic status in New Zealand, typifying its ‘rags to riches’ story. It began by supplying the domestic market with individually-packaged steamed puddings and desserts, based on a family fruit pudding recipe belonging to the founder’s sister, ‘Aunt Betty’.

Ten years later, the company is running at capacity. It produces 25 million puddings a year and is exporting a British staple back to the UK, where its products are rebranded as in-house brands by supermarkets.

The puddings are an outstanding example of a great recipe. Old Fashioned Foods combined New Zealand food expertise, sound manufacturing principles and a determination to produce a convenience food that meets market demands for easy meal solutions without compromising product quality and wholesomeness.

New Zealand has world class status in food technology, ranging from its development of functional foods through to natural food extracts. Old Fashioned Foods made use of this expertise to overcome food safety issues identified during its comprehensive product development phase, winning FoodTech’s 2002 Convenience Food Award.

Old Fashioned Foods Managing Director, Ross Mackenzie, says the company’s growth is a result of the combination of a number of essential ingredients. He describes them as great products, efficient production, skilled staff, effective marketing and a ‘can do’ attitude. “Each of these factors on their own would not have been enough. It’s been a question of combining them to get the recipe right.”

FAIF 2, a joint venture fund managed by Rabobank and Gresham Partners, invested in Old Fashioned Foods because they saw the company as a good platform from which to grow, organically and through acquisition, into a substantial food business capable of achieving a listing on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

This investment has given FAIF 2 a strategic footprint in New Zealand’s food market. It recognised the innovation underpinning Old Fashioned Foods, and FAIF 2’s Natalie Forsyth-Stock says the products have a unique and sustainable advantage and are well positioned in a growth market.

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