Nuttz About Nuts was founded in 2009 in a suburban Auckland garage and now operates from an accredited food processing industrial premises in Napier. Photo / Bayleys
Nuttz About Nuts was founded in 2009 in a suburban Auckland garage and now operates from an accredited food processing industrial premises in Napier. Photo / Bayleys
One of only a few commercially graded specialist nut-processing plants operating in New Zealand has been placed on the market for sale.
Nuttz About Nuts was founded in 2009 in a suburban Auckland garage, and after a decade of continued growth in both volumes and turnover, it now operates fromaccredited industrial food-processing premises in Napier.
Among the varieties of nuts processed at the Napier plant are cashews, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds and peanuts.
According to individual client brands and products, Nuttz About Nuts then adds a multitude of various flavours to the core nut product – including honey, chilli lime, cinnamon, Moroccan spice, vanilla, smoke and chocolate. It also produces unflavoured raw and roasted nuts.
The company has a nut supply contract with the New Zealand operations of airline food supplier LSG Skychefs, which sees the brand's nuts flown out of this country on Air New Zealand and other international airlines. Nuttz nuts are also found in the minibars of several New Zealand hotel brands – such as Sofitel, Millennium and Skycity.
Now the "Nuttz About Nuts" business is now being marketed for sale through Bayleys Napier for $990,000 plus GST.
Salesperson Rodger Howie said the business was highly specialised - with few other such operations of its type in New Zealand.
Howie said that Nuttz About Nuts' founder and current owner spent some $125,000 on fitting out its Napier premises in 2014 to Ministry of Primary Industry food manufacturing approved standards.
The plant has the ministry's Hazard Analysis at Critical Control Point certification.
Expanding the processing capabilities of the plant five years ago, the owner added a macadamia nut processing plant capable of drying, shelling and sorting up to 16 tonnes of macadamia nuts per month.
Among the varieties of nuts processed at the Napier plant are cashews, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, and peanuts. Photo / Bayleys
He also began importing bulk product, processing and packaging that product for distribution under the Nuttz About Nuts brand and also to local food manufacturers for value-add under other brands.
Howie said that with the Nuttz About Nuts business operating on an established firm footing - with product supply agreements and wholesale contracts in place - the entity was ready for a new owner to take it to the next level.
"Currently, the macadamia plant only operates at 12.5 per cent of capacity, so there is substantial room to grow productivity," he said.
"The big revenue opportunity is, of course, getting the Nuttz-branded product range onto the supermarket shelves, followed by the potential for exporting stock and concurrently increasing the contract processing services the company delivers.
"The current owner, by his own admission, is very much a 'day-to-day', 'do it', sort of guy. While his expertise is in food production and manufacturing, he knows the business needs someone with marketing 'nous' skillset to take the brand and all its potential to the next level."
Nuttz About Nuts has a lease on its Napier warehouse factory premises until later this year, with two three-year rights of renewal pending to be taken by any new owner of the business.
