Yarrows (The Bakers) Limited

Located in the small Taranaki township of Manaia and into its third generation of family management, Yarrows (The Bakers) Limited operates round the clock, exporting six to eight containers of products to clients across the globe every day of the week.

Founded by the Yarrow family in 1923, Russell Guckert, the Group’s Chief Operating Officer, recalls when the company started exporting in the late 1970s. “For many years overseas orders were a very small part of the business, the departure of a container destined for overseas quite an event.”

That all changed in 1996 when the Subway sandwich chain entered Australasia and Yarrow’s successfully tendered to supply it with bread in a frozen dough form, to a superior quality and an exact recipe. Mr Guckert says Yarrows beat off big international competition to win the Subway contract. It was a coup for the Manaia business and a feather in the cap for Paul Yarrow who had spearheaded their bid. A grandson of the company founder, Paul Yarrow is now the Group’s major shareholder.

Mr Guckert says the Subway business was a huge learning experience for the company, with the initial hard work now paying off. Its supply contract with Subway now extends to Australia, Taiwan, Korea and Japan and that is likely to expand. Subway’s success means it could double in size over the next four years, through new stores openings, product development and the growth of the business as consumers demand fresh, healthy take-outs.

At the same time it won the Subway business Yarrows started targeting Australian supermarkets.

“We recognised that the frozen dough market in Australia was immature, with supermarket chains relying on traditional ‘scratch baking’ (making up from raw materials on site). We foresaw the shortage of skilled bakers would grow and force a switch to a lesser skill set, which promoted an opportunity for our long shelf life natural frozen dough products.”

As well as addressing the skill shortage, the frozen dough significantly reduces the customer’s wage and overhead costs, giving them the ability to bake the products as and when required.

Leveraging off its success in Australia, Yarrows then started selling to the United States. Always striving for product development and innovation, Paul Yarrow says it was the first New Zealand company to export butter based products to the United States, in the form of frozen croissants.

Yarrows now exports to hotels, restaurants and retailers in the United States, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE and the very exacting Japanese market. Its extensive product range includes breads, rolls, cookies, croissants, pastries, pie tarts, specialty breads.

“The superior quality of our frozen dough products has been possible by investing in consistent quality improvement, upgrading the factory and systems and investing in the latest technology,” explains Mr Yarrow. “We’ve been able to develop unique intellectual property and frozen dough knowledge to successfully compete against other suppliers, and the traditional model of baking from scratch or premixed.”
Being a family business, Mr Yarrow says the company has the agility and ability to react to market changes much more quickly than large multinationals.

“This is a company that has always travelled the world, learning new techniques, looking for new technology to make sure that what we are doing remains at the leading edge of the business. If we don’t have the skill set it’s always been the philosophy to bring that talent to the country. And we are always diversifying. If we get approaches for new product lines we always give them a go, we’ve never had our blinkers on.”

Mr Yarrow says family values ethos remains core to Yarrows’ success. The company cares about its staff and the community, who in turn support the firm. Employees are drawn from throughout Taranaki and there’s a policy that anyone from Manaia who knocks on the door will be found a job.

The company employs 250 people in Manaia, with the factory operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A further 150 staff operate throughout New Zealand (still an important market) and Australia.

About 60 percent of business is now export, and growing. Mr Yarrow says operating out of Manaia helps offset freight costs and offers a stable workforce. Any doubts clients might have about working with a business located in a small Taranaki township (population 1000) are dispelled when they visit and see the sophisticated operation combined with the fresh, natural environment of heartland New Zealand.
Russell Guckert says exporting keeps Yarrows at the top of its game, and along with the financial rewards, is stimulating and challenging.

“We also get real pride out of seeing our products in the international marketplace, whether it’s Sydney, Tokyo or Las Vegas. We are also very proud that we are still a 100 percent New Zealand-owned family business, still based in Manaia.”

Contact: Russell Guckert, Group Chief Operating Officer, Yarrows (The Bakers) Limited, phone 06 274 8195, email russell@yarrows.co.nz, www.yarrows.co.nz