Green Monkey notches up Aussie win

Green Monkey's pouches of organic fruit and vegetable purees also took out the “Health and Wellness” section in the awards. 

The company is hoping the double win will kick start sales across the Tasman.

Co-owner Andy Macbeth says the Australian market has been difficult to crack, and the recent recognition, following on from wins in last year’s Massey Food Awards, will help boost the company’s profile when it pitches to supermarket chains such as Coles and Woolworths.

“The mana, public awareness and PR you get is exactly what you need when you’re a start-up breaking into a new market. For a mature business there’s not perhaps the same benefit because your brand and sales channels are established.”

Despite the huge amount of work involved in preparing award entries Macbeth urges other small businesses to look on it as a cost effective way of getting precious publicity.

“Small businesses can’t afford the traditional cheque book way of product branding, so one of the best things we can do is be creative about opportunities like this.  You get a lot of value and credibility out of it compared to putting advertisements in a newspaper saying ‘We have a good product, buy us!’ Consumers have become very distrustful of traditional advertising and have far more faith in word of mouth.”

Macbeth will ensure information about the awards appears on Green Monkey packaging because he is convinced it influences potential customers.

“If you think of a classic wine label with a gold medal on it, a lot of shoppers will think ‘This one must be good because it has won all these awards’.”

As well as selling through traditional distribution channels Green Monkey is also keen to set up its own Australian and American websites to direct market to consumers who are increasingly buying food products online.

The company already sells through a local website and is listed on Amazon in the US, but Macbeth says the decision to expand their internet presence has been driven by the number of Americans ordering baby food from the New Zealand site. 

“We get our sales agent in America to send it via UPS.”