130 | BUSINESS Leanne’s Kitchen T T Karen Phelps Dumpling maker cooking up a storm The successful team at Leanne’s Kitchen. The company recently won the Excellence in Industry and Manufacturing award at the East Tamaki Business Awards. “We’re probably one of the few food manufacturers in recent times that haven’t moved our prices.” Since its inception over 20 years ago, Auckland company Leanne’s Kitchen has grown to become the largest volume producer of dumplings in New Zealand with 45% market share. The company recently won the Excellence in Industry and Manufacturing award at the 2023 East Tamaki Business Awards. “It brought the whole Leanne’s Kitchen team immense pride and helped validate all the energy and effort the team has put in,” says Leanne’s Kitchen general manager Graeme Laurence. Leanne’s Kitchen is today owned by Karren and Steve Turner who acquired the business about nine years ago. Steve, an engineer by trade, has helped drive the company’s focus on investment in technology and innovation. A purpose-built dumpling factory was built in East Tamaki, Auckland in the middle of the pandemic, including introducing automation and lean manufacturing principles. Focusing on organisation and efficiency in the manufacturing process has resulted in the capacity to produce 180,000 dumplings per day on a single shift. “This enables us to produce in response to market demand,” says Graeme. Key machinery includes a spiral vertical freezer and conveyor that individually quick freezes each item (it is just 24 minutes from the moment a dumpling starts to be made until the process is complete and it is frozen), dumpling machines and packaging equipment, which have enabled efficient processing and packaging ensuring consistency of quality product every time. It’s also helped stabilise pricing while costs have increased. “We’re probably one of the few food manufacturers in recent times that haven’t moved our prices,” says Graeme. The business employs a team of around 15 people and an in-house research and development team creates bespoke flavours specifically for New Zealand and export. Leanne’s Kitchen is the first dumpling producer in New Zealand offering plant-based dumplings in response to the rapid growth of consumers seeking alternatives with the range starting to be launched in North Island Foodstuffs stores from May. “Leanne’s Kitchen plant-based range allows for new innovative yet mainstream flavours designed to resonate with younger consumers – allowing increased penetration among young families switching over for a tastier and healthier choice,” says Graeme. “From numerous focus groups and blind tastings in New Zealand, over 80% of tasters couldn’t say if these were plant-based or not. This new range is also higher in protein and lower in sodium versus current dumplings that makes it a much healthier option and would be a higher demand for the health conscious consumer.” He says that Leanne’s Kitchen’s reputation has been founded on quality, variety and reliability: “Our mission, as a local New Zealand made food producer, is to serve a superior product that leaves the customer satisfied and we do this by keeping the recipe simple and healthy. Everything is the best quality we can source and we use New Zealand vegetables exclusively. The process is quite hands on when it comes to ingredients, making some items on site from scratch including the pastry dough, spice mixes and garlic oil. The dumplings contain no colouring, preservatives or harmful additives and offer an easy cooking processes taking between five to 12 minutes.” Product is distributed to large supermarkets, foodservice outlets and specialist food retailers throughout New Zealand and the company is in the process of exploring expansion into Australia. Graeme says further expansion, both geographically and of the product range, is on the cards. “Leanne’s Kitchen aims for profitable growth by investing in our innovation, travelling to see what’s trending around the world, talking to our customers and taking an unrelenting approach to operating as effectively as possible.” As a leading supplier of bakery ingredient solu�ons, Mauri offers a comprehensive por�olio of high-quality bakers and specialised applica�on flours, yeasts, grains, bread and cake pre-mixes, and improvers. 0800 937 866 | orders@maurianz.com | www.mauri.co.nz Mauri is proud to be a local supplier of quality flour to Leanne’s Kitchen.
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