Beef jerky maker rehiring staff

Staff are being rehired at the Jack Links South Auckland factory thanks to Japan and the falling dollar. Picture / Martin Sykes

Three months after shedding two-thirds of its workforce, beef jerky maker Jack Links is rehiring thanks to the fall in the New Zealand dollar and Japan's new-found appetite for meat snacks.

Links is introducing a night shift at its South Auckland factory and creating 20 new jobs after winning $3.1 million worth of annual export orders from Japan.

The company's beef jerky steaks are already in some smaller stores in Japan and will hit the shelves of Circle K Sankus' 6300 convenience stores next month.

Links chief executive John Corner said the deal stemmed from a renewed interest in dried meat snacks in Japan, and expected jerky exports to Japan to rise 300 per cent over the next three to five years.

The brighter news follows a difficult month in January when the company had to cut 102 jobs after losing its biggest customer to a Brazilian rival because the high New Zealand dollar had made it less competitive.

United States meat snacks giant Link Snacks International had been buying three container loads of bulk beef jerky worth $1 million from the Mangere factory a week - about 85 per cent of Links' turnover.

The high New Zealand dollar was blamed, as the US firm said it was cheaper to buy its jerky from Brazil, forcing Links to close its bulk manufacturing division and reduce staff numbers to 70.

Since then the kiwi has dropped sharply and was around US64c over the weekend, well below the high of US74c hit last year.

Corner said the weakening had played a significant part in securing new business.

But the kiwi was still a long way off its rate of US40c when Corner opened the Mangere factory four years ago and it was unlikely the US business would ever return.

"We'll never compete with the cheaper raw material and cheaper labour in South America," he said.

The company, 40 per cent owned by Corner, is now focused on the retail jerky market and exports to Japan and Australia comprise two-thirds of revenue, helping to keep the factory "flat out" producing about 80,000 packets of jerky a day, he said.

Links' recent success in Japan follows its showing at Foodex in Japan last month - the largest food and drink exhibition in Asia.

Links was one of seven Kiwi companies showing at the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise pavilion, with products including wine, cookies, oils, honey, greenshell mussels and oysters.

Japan is traditionally a tough retail market to crack, and Corner said buyers surprised with a willingness to spend money on new items.

"Japanese companies have come out of recession. They are out looking for new items, flavours and packaging. It was a very different Foodex than we've seen in recent years - for us it was abnormally successful."

Although Japan's snack market was competitive, there were fewer rivals in the area of meat snacks where Links was competing against dried fish and squid.

"Beef snacks have been a small section of that product category and over the last 10 years had almost disappeared.

"However, over the last couple of years there's been a renewed interest in beef," said Corner.

"We offer a high-protein, low-fat meat snack and we're seeing a major revival in that market."

Japan is the world's largest importer of consumer food products and New Zealand's third-largest trading partner, with exports last year totalling $3.2 billion, with at least half comprising food and beverage exports.