Kiwi food and beverage company Little Island Coconut Creamery is moving into exports of coconut milk, kicking off in Australia and then expanding into the US state of California early next year to take advantage of a global trend to plant-based food.
Tommy Holden and James Crow started up the Auckland-based company in 2010 making dairy-free, coconut cream-based NiceBlocks and ice-cream, and added coconut milk stored in the supermarket chiller with other dairy alternatives last year. It has partnered with Samoan coconut cream producer Ah Liki for the supply of the base ingredient.
Coconut milk now comprises half of the startup's $3.2 million in annual revenue and Crow said it's focusing first on long-life milk exports as an everyday consumer staple rather than the ice-creams, which are more seasonal and attract lower margins offshore. He's forecasting revenue to rise to $5.2m in the 2017 financial year from Australian exports while US revenues should kick in the following year.
Tasting panels the startup has just completed showed American consumers preferred Little Island over existing coconut milk products, giving it the confidence to move into the market early next year as a premium product following a few, minor tasting and packaging tweaks.
Although Little Island faces a handful of coconut milk competitors already in the US, "the number one thing is taste", Crowe said, and he believes that, along with its Kiwi story, will win consumers over. "We'll have a founder-driven sales pitch in the US," he said.