42 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Hellers Ltd T T Kim Newth Innovation keeps Hellers at forefront Hellers’ factory on the north side of the Waimakariri is a key local employer across Christchurch and North Canterbury. Proud to work with Hellers Ltd 35 Hellers is a quintessentially Canterbury success story with all the right ingredients. In 1985, Todd Heller launched his first butchery in Christchurch before expanding to Kaiapoi and Auckland. Along with traditional smallgoods favourites, Hellers has long been renowned for wowing consumers’ tastebuds with enticing new products and flavours reflecting Todd’s passion for travel and exploring the food of different cultures. Todd’s son Brydon, Hellers’ Marketing Manager, is proud of what his father created and how it has grown to become what it is today. “I come from a long line of butchers going back five generations, first landing in Arrowtown,” says Brydon. “I was working in the shop making up trays from the age of 10 and my sister [Fraeona Heller] would be cooking meals at 12 when Mum and Dad were working. We grew up with it. I did my butchery apprenticeship after leaving school; my sister is a chef and is our innovation pipeline manager. Dad was like the Willy Wonka of innovation. We’ve inherited a bit of that too and contribute to innovation along with the rest of the Hellers’ team.” Todd loves how consumers’ tastes support food and flavour innovation, with a lot of influence today via social media. It wasn’t with a beef burger, but with a lamb burger that Hellers won gold at the National Sausage and Burger Awards last year. Spanish, Asian and Indian flavours are no longer considered out of the ordinary. “We have this big melting pot of flavours that people like to share with friends and family and we want to be part of that.” A Hellers competition (‘NZ’s Next Top Sausage’) inviting the public to come up with an original sausage flavour has produced winners in the range, including the New Yorker Porker and the Sticky Ginger Beef. “Last year’s winner came up with ‘Nacho Cheese’. That one really stood out – it will be coming out shortly.” Hellers’ food technologists constantly test promising ideas that come in, with other exciting new products set for release later this year. Hellers’ factory on the north side of the Waimakariri is a key local employer across Christchurch and North Canterbury. Having arrived at the site with just eight staff members in 1993, Todd quickly developed and grew the operation. The building has quadrupled in size through the years. The full Hellers range, from sausages to bacon and frozen products, is made at the Main North Road site. The plant’s excellent artesian water supply flows through to the exceptional quality of product. Hellers has another plant in Auckland making sausages and smallgoods, with smallgoods also made in Christchurch. The busiest times for Hellers are October to February, spanning the Christmas ham stampede followed by big demand for sausages and bacon through the social summer season. “We have around 450 staff working at our Main North Road plant at peak. We’re always looking for more people to join us. We regularly go and talk to the high schools in Kaiapoi and Rangiora and we put signs up on the motorway side so people going past know about the opportunity here.” Working at the plant has become an intergenerational story for many local families. Hellers fosters a supportive and safe workplace culture, and an open door management style. Hellers supports New Zealand’s wider beef and lamb industry by buying through Alliance Meats Christchurch and has an association with Patoa Farms Ltd in Hawarden. Brydon is proud to have been invited to judge the Food and Beverage category at this year’s North Canterbury Business Awards. Hellers is an active member of Enterprise North Canterbury’s business network. “We are happy to share the story of how we have grown as a business – from a small family butcher to being the number one producer of quality smallgoods in New Zealand - and what we did to achieve that.” Hellers is gradually growing into the Australian market too, through platforms in Bendigo and Perth. “We’re settling in and looking at the opportunities.” Hellers remains very much a New Zealand family business though with the community at heart. Since launching their Sausages for Schools initiative in 2012, Hellers has donated more than two million sausages to help schools with fundraising. Hellers also gives generously to Christchurch and Auckland City Mission and to local foodbanks.
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