Export strategy licks business into shape

The key change I made was to 'get the right people on the bus'; people who had a good fit with me and my approach. We changed 50 percent of the management team in the first couple of months and really focused on sorting out the business operationally to make it much more efficient.

We also shifted the business model to focus more on export growth opportunities.

The company had been too busy with the likes of high volume, low margin house brand ice creams. We changed that to pursue rapid growth in export markets and build on our premium positioning in New Zealand. To get the quickest most meaningful growth, we initially focused on one primary market – Japan. It’s a difficult market to get started in, but the rewards are high.

Japan is all about relationships. I put my feet on the ground and basically just went door knocking, using NZTE to help cold call potential customers and set up meetings. Japan is now one of our most important markets and I still visit the market regularly.

Once we got traction in Japan we expanded quickly, from nine export markets in 2006 to 29 today. Our ice cream products are now found in excess of 1000 supermarkets internationally, and that will expand rapidly over the next 18 months.

We’ve also heavily expanded our New Zealand Natural brand and ice cream parlour model, opening express parlours in resorts, expanded the ‘store within store’ model, created cinema and cruise ship partnerships, and achieved entry into several international supermarket channels.

Our export strategy has been driven primarily by the identification of a huge, untapped international demand for the clean green image that is associated with food products from New Zealand.

We could grow more quickly if we had large amounts of capital – but we don’t, we run on a very lean capital base. We also have to contend with trade barriers and some pretty horrific tariffs.

The volatility of the New Zealand dollar is another big challenge. But you’re either a currency speculator or food manufacturer that makes a certain margin. You’ve got to draw a line in the sand and decide when to fix contracts and currency.

We don’t take many big risks, but you’ve got to back yourself sometime. We had to take a punt with our Zilch no-added-sugar ice cream range, and it’s proven to be a very important market.