Export market approach bears fruit for Nelson-based kids snack business
As a busy working mum, Bonnie Slade wanted quick pre-packaged snacks for her kids that weren’t loaded with rubbish. When she realised the options were limited, she decided to create her own.
The result was NaturKidz – an award-winning line of freeze-dried snacks made from New Zealand fruit, which is also now a flourishing business.
Slade launched the Nelson-based business in April 2023 and the first product went to market in November. Today, the NaturKidz line includes four flavours – gold kiwi fruit slices, apple and feijoa sticks, apple sticks, and apple sticks with blueberry.
However, the path to snacking success for NaturKidz has not followed the usual route of most Kiwi businesses. Rather than focus on building a client base at home, Slade decided to do things differently and target the export market first.
“From a business sustainability point, it’s really hard to make it work in New Zealand. But the truth is you don’t have to spend five years slogging it out here. There are other ways to become a successful New Zealand business.”
Slade travelled to Vietnam in November 2022 on a trade delegation with former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and was impressed by the economic growth she saw there.
“I’ve gone three times since that trip and every time I’ve seen how rapidly that economy is growing. The plan became to get in there while there wasn’t a lot of competition and be one of the first New Zealand products on the market,” she says.
Today, Slade’s main markets are Vietnam, Malaysia, and Taiwan, where NaturKidz will be launching in mid-July. Nurturing these relationships further and connecting with retailers there is her priority for the year ahead.
While it may not have been the usual route to market, export has long been an area of expertise for Slade.
For nearly 20 years she has worked with several small to medium businesses in the natural product industry around the Nelson and Tasman region, where she is based.
“I’ve helped take a couple of those brands into export markets and grow them significantly. I then had an opportunity to start my own thing and thought I’d better do it – but I never saw myself doing this. It seemed like something other people did, not me!”
Slade hasn’t received any funding support for NaturKidz through Government agencies and only has two investors, which are private and not venture capitalists.
While her background and years of experience have certainly contributed to her success as an entrepreneur, Slade says one of the most difficult parts of her journey has been getting people to take her seriously because, on paper, people see the company as being in its infancy.
“In export markets, and at home, they’re relatively wary of startups. Still, just because the business looks like it’s young doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing. On top of that, being a woman sometimes adds another level of needing to convince people.”
However, Slade has found many businesses in Vietnam are woman-run – and by women who have chosen to have a career and a family, not ‘either-or’, which is part of her story, too.
“Over there, the founder story is really big. They love the fact I am a female founder who is also a mum and is making good food for kids.”
Not only is Slade giving parents and kids a healthy and delicious snack alternative, she is also helping reduce the amount of food waste in New Zealand, as all the fruit used in NaturKidz products would otherwise have not made it to market.
Slade says that between November 2023 and May 2024, the company rescued 15,228kg of fruit.
“I didn’t want to create any more waste and in Nelson, where there are many apple orchards, you often see apples lying on the ground. Many don’t even get picked and others that do get graded out. It’s almost criminal how much waste there is. So, we say to the growers, we’ll buy it. We don’t need the fruit to be perfect as it gets diced into sticks and freeze-dried.”
Slade says the food-waste part of their story is big in Australia and New Zealand and people really respond, whereas in the Asian markets it’s not as important to retailers and consumers. In her key market of Vietnam, for example, Slade says people are mostly on the lookout for innovative modern products and are particularly good at spending money on their children.
“We offer a New Zealand product made with fruit from New Zealand, so we’re not the cheapest on the market and we never will be, as we make it here.”
Still, Slade knows they have a competitive edge in terms of flavour, and the feijoa sticks are a world-first.
The NaturKidz flavours have also received multiple awards and nods during their short time on the shelf. They were awarded four NZ Life & Leisure gold medals in 2023 and named Free-From Champion at the Outstanding Food Producer Awards.
“We’d only had the product out six weeks at the time and it was blind taste tested, so we were especially proud of that.”
The business was also recently named as a Finalist in the 2024 FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) Business Product of the Year awards and has four Finalist places in the Clean + Conscious Awards – an Australian/New Zealand competition that rewards clean, ethical, sustainable, responsible products. (Winners for both awards will be announced later this year.)
Recognition like this has made it easier for Slade to keep on track and not give up. What means most to her though is the feedback from those eating the product regularly.
“The main aim was that kids had to love it, so to hear from parents and kids who do love the product – especially those parents who have kids with sensory issues or just generally struggle to get good food into their kids, and tell me they love it – really keeps me going,” she says.
Her advice to others thinking of going into business for themselves is to never think you can’t do it.
“You’d be surprised how much you can achieve when you’ve got an idea or business you are passionate about. It feels different when it’s your own thing.”
However, she also warns not to start before you are ready.
She said it’s common for people starting a business to want to see the money coming in immediately, but she warns that going to market prematurely might see you shoot yourself in the foot instead.
“I’m pretty driven and I want NaturKidz to be a success. But it’s crucial to talk to people smarter than you all the time, because you never know it all.”
Story by Stephanie Ockhuysen in partnership with Nelson Regional Development Agency (NRDA)
Innovation Nation is an annual series celebrating stories of innovation and diversity in entrepreneurship from around New Zealand.
