Pudding-maker steams ahead

The proof is in the pudding where Aunt Betty's is concerned.

A continually hungry market means that pudding-maker Old Fashioned Foods is getting that much closer towards a listing.

A recent cash injection of $6 million in a private equity deal from fund manager Gresham Rabo Management will help Old Fashioned Foods to buy the other half of its British sales and distribution arm and triple capacity at its Penrose factory, which employs 65 staff making the traditional self-saucing puddings.

Managing director Ross MacKenzie said yesterday that the aim was to launch an IPO within five years, during which time it aimed to boost turnover to $100 million from $30 million.

Growth would come from existing products, and from acquiring other companies and broadening its range to frozen desserts.

MacKenzie said the success of the Aunt Betty's steamed puddings had exceeded expectations when the company started 10 years ago.

Earthmoving contractor Fred Willets, down on his luck after losing money in the property bust of the early 1990s, decided to use sister Betty Cole's popular steamed pudding recipe to rebuild his fortunes.

The Penrose company now produces more than 200,000 puddings a day.

"Aunt Betty", 75, still lives in Nelson. The company has stuck to her original recipe, making 20 flavours and steaming the puddings for the four hours she insisted upon.

It makes 25 million puddings a year, half of which are gobbled up by the Brits in a steamed-pudding market worth more than $200 million.

Old Fashioned's main competition there comes from Heinz, which makes a canned pudding.

MacKenzie, a food scientist, is the company's largest shareholder after Willets sold out a few years ago.

GRM holds about 33 per cent.

Gresham Rabo Management is a joint venture between Gresham Partners and giant Dutch bank Rabobank. It manages the $121 million Food & Agribusiness Investment Fund No 2, which invests purely in those industries.

GRM has about half the fund remaining for investments in Australia and New Zealand.