24 | Taranaki - Van Dyck Fine Foods REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Consistency and quality a tasty combination T from page 22 Just over half of Van Dyck’s customers are retail with about 40% food service including restaurants, hotels, catering, institutions, aged care and health care. The appointment of a board four years ago was followed by the appointment of Natalie Innes as CEO who brought significant experience and pedigree from such businesses as Fonterra, Goodman Fielder and Kellogg’s. Passionate about the FMCG industry, Natalie delivered a stream of new ideas about how to revitalise a good business and put it back on a trajectory for profitable growth. “We set ourselves a strategic target to double business in three years and we’ve achieved that in top line while growing the bottom line by a lot more,” says Natalie. “We’ve utilised the facilities and technology that were built over time and got them up to the capacity they’re able to output, and naturally helped the business grow and develop. “We had a fantastic team of loyal staff and injected the business with a new level of capability and expertise including accounting, research and development, along with new reporting and tracking parameters, which has helped decision making propel the business forward. “Our focus is on quality and one of the big things that we’ve really focused on is continuous improvement. “So a quality product, being a family business and bringing the business right up to date on processes and procedures has underpinned our turnaround. The appointment of Dow Goodfolk to refresh our branding has also been key.” A key to Van Dyck’s growth has been expanding its audit status. In order to attract much larger customers requiring higher audit standards Natalie and her team achieved an AA BRC standard enabling them to tell retail customers they had a professional quality manufacturing capability. BRC is a global standard for food safety. “Coles is one of our big customers and we have also attained the highest level in Coles auditing, which is quite stringent. SEDEX is another audit, and that is more about people and HR practices. So those audits were key to expanding into much bigger retail customers, continually improving on what we do, focusing on growing our people and quality processes.” Just over half of Van Dyck’s customers are retail with about 40% food service including restaurants, hotels, catering, institutions, aged care and health care. Available throughout New Zealand, Van Dyck’s pancakes and crepes are also available in Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Pacific Island and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) regions. “We had a very strong focus on our existing New Zealand customers and then really pushed out a growth strategy on the Australian market,” says Natalie. “ We have been very successful in getting product distribution in some key retail customers in Australia.” Reflecting on what makes Van Dyck’s products so good, Natalie says it extends far beyond the convenience of heating a pancake or crepe in the pan or microwave. “It’s literally the quality of the product. You just cannot cook a crepe or a pancake like we can — that’s a fact, even I can’t. “The consistency, the quality, the consistent look of the product; it creates visual appeal, its beautifully light and fluffy. It has to be a great product, otherwise customers don’t keep coming back and we know our customers do keep coming back because we focus on quality.” CentrePort – the port of choice for Central New Zealand CentrePort proudly supports Van Dyck Fine Foods
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