Off-Piste Provisions, which makes plant-based protein snacks, is one of four companies chosen by ASB. Photo / Mickey Ross
Off-Piste Provisions, which makes plant-based protein snacks, is one of four companies chosen by ASB. Photo / Mickey Ross
ASB has chosen the first four of up to 30 aspiring export companies it aims to help scale up for international growth.
The four companies to join ASB Access, a $20 million debt capital fund pilot, are Grounded Packaging, Almighty Beverages, Off-Piste Provisions and LILO Desserts.
Ben Speedy, ASB’s generalmanager of commercial banking, said they all made innovative, sustainable products that reflected food mega-trends such as sustainable proteins, food as medicine and smart supply chains.
The programme will provide them with working capital to support international growth and additional, tailored services from which they may benefit.
Speedy said the programme aimed to help 25 to 30 companies over the next five years.
The next phase would include trade support and collaboration to ensure companies could scale up.
Ben Speedy, ASB's general manager of commercial banking.
Industry response to the programme had exceeded ASB’s expectations, highlighting the funding gap experienced by the food and fibre sector in the growth phase, Speedy said.
“Food and fibre businesses have high capital needs to meet international export opportunities ... it is also important to understand that debt is not necessarily the best form of capital for early-stage companies, with equity investment removing immediate cashflow obligations from the business while the product is being proven out.”
Speedy said the bank had a strong pipeline of companies with which it was in discussions, including those that had products and technology across the circular and bio economies, sustainable fibres and advanced processing food and fibre categories.
Asked how the programme would offer trade support and collaboration to increase exports, he said the bank had built an extensive network through its trade and rural teams and would use those connections to create “a food and fibre ecosystem”.
“Our research has shown that operating in effective ecosystems helps to encourage R&D, strengthen innovation and international exposure and has productivity benefits for the wider economy. We’ll bring together industry, funds, investors and professional services firms, with organisations like Te Hono and Future Food Aotearoa, to collaborate and work together to support and facilitate international trade.
”Having the right relationships is key to getting ahead and effective ecosystems can drive innovation, co-investment and clustering to support successful exporting. Unlocking this value this will be key to improving New Zealand’s productivity.”
Applicants to the programme did not have to be existing ASB customers, he said.
Almighty Beverages had been offered expanded access to working capital, its co-founder and managing director Ben Lenart said.
“This is ultimately a more affordable source of capital than tier-two lenders or raising capital via existing or new shareholders,” he told the Herald.
“Almighty is in a big growth phase at the moment as we’re expanding our sparkling water range in New Zealand and Australia. Working with ASB gives us access to increased working capital to support this growth at a better interest rate while minimising dilution to shareholders.
“This just seemed like a no-brainer to me. It can be a real challenge to access this level of capital when we’re growing so quickly ...
“It is still early days, but it will give us certainty and confidence to make some significant investments in growing our business, to make sure we have the best team to keep delivering the best sparkling water to our customers around New Zealand and Australia. Our business model needs to invest ahead of the sales curve, so this partnership and funding gives us the confidence to do that.”
Almighty was founded in 2015. Shareholders include Lenart, a group of family and friends, some high-net-worth investors and about 120 additional shareholders who invested via a Snowball Effect fundraising round in 2023, he said.
Grounded Packaging was founded in 2019 and develops sustainable packaging materials and solutions, mainly for the food and consumer goods sectors. It exports 95 per cent of its products to Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. Packaging products are plant-made from bio-based materials and can be composted or recycled; waste-made from post-consumer recycled content; and paper-made, functional paper and fibre that can be recycled in the paper stream.
Co-founder Ben Grant said the programme provided a trade finance facility “above and beyond what the other major banks were able to”.
“That facility allows us to better manage our working capital requirements and also provide preferable payment terms to our customers, which in turn allows us to onboard customers at a faster rate than we might be able to otherwise.
“As a high-growth start-up, we have found most traditional lenders regard us as too great a risk to extend any meaningful level of working capital funding. However, the Access programme allows the bank to take a wider lens on the business to evaluate what we’ve been able to achieve in the last few years and how the business is tracking.”
The funding would free up the company’s working capital to allow it to continue to focus on fast growth in its core overseas markets, he said.
Grounded Packaging’s shareholders are Grant, business partner Josh Kempton, the Impact Enterprise Fund, Kilara Capital and Soul Capital.
Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.
