We are a very small manufacturer located in Avondale, Auckland. Canaan Cheese was a company we (Ofer Shenhav and myself) purchased in 2009 with the intention of creating " the collective" and producing beautiful dairy products, especially yoghurt. It was a massive factory at the time for a pretty small business so it needed to grow. We are very lucky we did and now we are well filled out and have invested very well in a state of the art dairy plant which serves as our innovation kitchen to expand globally. Dairy is a very expensive capital rich business and requires a lot of investment upfront to produce a clean and consistent product.
What was the decision making process you went through to go international?
Both Ofer and I had been through setting up and selling fresh meals businesses in New Zealand ( Pitango and Naked ) and on a trip overseas in the early stages we saw a massive gap in the UK and US markets for the product we made so we just decided to go for it and do something different to what we had done in the past. It was so fantastic to see our products on the shelves in Waitrose for the first time and this is when we realised that our brand and product were pretty special.
What arrangement do you have to manufacture in the UK?
It has worked out very well. We have great partners (yoghurt manufacturers) who make the highest quality product with the best milk. It allows our team to focus solely on sales and marketing which is very different from our New Zealand business.
