Selwyn Times: October 02, 2019

SELWYN TIMES Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Wednesday October 2 2019 29
Vegan food business booming
• By Sophie Cornish
NICHOLAS HARLOW and
Britteny Bryan were rejected by
five banks, almost went bankrupt
and lived in a storage unit for
eight months.
But now it’s all paying off.
The eager entrepreneurs are
pioneers in vegan ready-made
meals, and they are struggling to
keep up with the demand.
Their company Berkano Foods
Ltd is the first of its kind, now
employs six staff, and has meals
in 32 supermarkets nationwide.
They also supply a door-todoor
residential service, using
courier delivery.
Said Mr Harlow, who grew up
in Lincoln: “We’re at our peak at
what we can produce with our
staff, doing everything by hand,
hence why we can’t produce mass
numbers right now. We can’t
go into any more supermarkets.
They want us to supply them
straight into distribution but we
can’t simply produce enough.”
Ninety per cent of their ingredients
are from New Zealandbased
suppliers.
The couple come from humble
beginnings.
“We put all of our cards on the
table,” Mr Harlow said, when deciding
to go into business with only
their savings and no investors.
“At the start when we first
formed this company, our family,
our friends, everyone, had no
idea and couldn’t comprehend
what we were doing,” he said.
“They thought we would go
bankrupt in a couple of months.
But, we pushed on and proved
everyone wrong.”
Five banks declined to give
them loans due to their age and
experience.
“We’re currently working 90 to
100 hour weeks. We haven’t had a
day off this year,” Mr Harlow said.
After waiting seven months to
gain their food licence, the couple
had little money left and decided
to move into the storage unit to
save costs.
They started a PledgeMe page
to crowd-fund the rest of the
money needed and started operating
in April 2017. From there,
they launched the delivery service,
gauging what the demand
was and what customers liked before
approaching supermarkets.
They launched in-store at St
Martins New World in July. The
entire stock sold out in two days.
Now, they’ve landed their first
investor, which has allowed them
to expand into another location,
where production will take place.
In 2016, Miss Bryan was
halfway through her engineering
degree when she realised “in
her heart” she was destined for
something else.
“I was passing my course, but
I wasn’t happy. Then I met Nick
CHANGING
THE GAME:
Berkano
Foods owners
Britteny Bryan
and Nicholas
Harlow are
hoping to
become the
‘plant-based
version of
Watties’ with
their readymade
vegan
meals. PHOTO:
GEOFF SLOAN
and we became vegan. We saw
a massive gap in the market and
thought, ‘why don’t we do something
about it?’’’
The couple researched the vegan
market in Europe and found
that ready-made vegan meals
were becoming hugely popular
overseas.
Their goal is to become “the
plant-based version of Watties”
with hopes to hit $1 million in
turnover this year and $1 million
in profit by the end of next year.
Some meals include mock
chicken, made from pea protein.
Meals include Thai ‘chicken’
green curry, butter ‘chicken’,
rigatoni bolognese and golden
peanut satay tofu.
Minister snubs
offer of free meal
• By Sophie Cornish
MINISTER FOR Primary
Industries Damien O’Connor
turned down the offer of a
Berkano Foods vegan meal.
The offer came at a
meeting between Mr O’Connor
and Claire Insley from the
Vegan Society of Aotearoa, New
Zealand in Westport in May.
Mr O’Connor had earlier in the
day been at the West Coast NZ
Dairy Forum.
Ms Insley wanted to discuss
the changing landscape of the
agriculture industry and also
took the opportunity to offer Mr
O’Connor a variety of Berkano
meals.
“He flat out refused to try
them. I thought: ‘Come on mate,
I’m not asking you to do a vegan
challenge, just try one meal’,” said
Ms Insley.
“He seemed quite negative
towards plant-based proteins and
instantly said ‘no they’re not!’
when I suggested that plant-based
proteins were the future, though
he did agree that climate change
was an issue that needed
addressing.”
A spokeswoman for Mr
O’Connor told the Selwyn Times
he was simply “not hungry”
after tucking into a “very large
morning tea spread” at the dairy
forum.
ADVERTORIAL
FOLLOW THE
SUSTAINABILITY
TRAIL IN
NOVEMBER
Lincoln Envirotown is urging people not to throw away broken
or torn things. This is because a Repair Café will feature in their
Sustainability Trail being run in November. People are asked to
hang on to those household items, appliances, toys, bicycles or
clothing which might be repaired instead of going to landfill and
bring them to the Repair Café for mending or advice.
Those interested in another aspect of Waste Management can
join a Zero Waste Road Trip and learn about New Zealand’s
household recycling methods and destinations.
These are two of a number of events planned for early November
as part of the exciting “Trail”. The Trail has something for
everyone; there are Nature Walks, Workshops, Tours and Visits.
All the trips and events are listed on the accompanying poster.
For more details of each and to register for specific activities go
to Eventbrite - Selwyn Sustainability Trail.
selwyn
sustainability
trail