Chloe Van Dyke

Nelson-based company CHIA exports drinks made with fruit juice and chia seeds to Malaysia and Singapore

What: Nutrient- dense sports and health drink made from fruit juice and seeds from the chia plant – a mint-like flowering herb from Central America. Who: Chloe Van Dyke, 30-year- old neuroscience graduate, adrenaline junkie, and food-nerd launched the business in December 2012 and produces, markets, and ships her drinks from Nelson. How it’s going: CHIA has over 400 stockists in New Zealand, including supermarkets, health stores, and cafes. Van Dyke exports to Singapore and Malaysia, with Australia on the cards.

What’s so great about chia seeds? They’re one of the richest plant sources of omega 3, protein, antioxidants, antacids, magnesium and fibre. They are also full of naturally- occurring electrolytes. The idea to create CHIA drinks came when we were looking for a nutrient-rich drink to have after exercise, and discovered that chia seeds are famously used by the Tarahumara Indians, direct descendants of the Aztecs, who are renowned for their long- distance running ability.

At the moment we import our seeds from Australia, but if anyone wants to grow them here, do get in touch.

Your Dad is your business partner – what's that like? It’s great. He’s in his 60’s, a professional swimmer, and used to run his own mail-order business called NZ Nature. Dad was just settling back to enjoy life after selling it when I dragged him into this! He takes care of sourcing ingredients, equipment, and helps with production. I mainly focus on getting it out there and doing the marketing. I think it’s good having the age balance of someone older as a business partner.

Do you have any shareholders – have you considered getting outside investment? Not seriously. We started small and have grown sustainably along with the business. We won the ANZ Flying Start competition back in 2013, which secured us $30,000 funding, that made a big difference at the early stages. If we were to take on an investor it would be more about the networks they’d contribute to our growth than just financial investment.

You chose Singapore and Malaysia as your first export markets. Why? We were approached by a distributor who represents other New Zealand food businesses in the Asian market, including Nelson-based health food brands Pic’s Peanut Butter and Proper Crisps. We’re starting slowly and working out what our price-point is in those markets. A bottle retails for around $4.99 here and the equivalent of $6 over there. Getting our heads around three-week freight is a tricky one, as we need to allow for much longer production lead-times. At the moment we’re cutting it fine on margins but if the quantities pick up it will work. You really need to have a lot of trust in your distributor. We’re talking to Australia at the moment about getting into stores over there; that will be our next move. CHIA won the Massey University Healthy Choice food award last year. Would you recommend entering awards? It was awesome to get that acknowledgement.

You can tell everyone ‘Our product is great!’ but it means a lot when someone scientifically analyses it and says, ‘Yes, it really is great.’

What’s the biggest challenging area for you? Putting myself out there. I’ve realised that this business isn’t just about getting the product into the market, it’s about me personally sharing my story and vision with people.

Do you have advice for newbie foodies? Just start doing it. If you wait until all your i’s are dotted then you’ll be too late. Dare to try.

Biggest stuff up? We had some wild yeast get into a batch. The drinks were all sitting boxed up in the warehouse, and then suddenly we realised they were exploding. I had to put a helmet on to go in – imagine how much mess bottles of blackcurrant & apple make when they’ve exploded all around a room – it was a disaster-zone!

Motivated by: Adventure. CHIA is about encouraging people to get outdoors and enjoy an active lifestyle. We’re sponsoring the CHIA Abel Tasman Coastal Classic this year and want to do more events like that.

A word of advice for newbie foodies: Just start doing it. If you wait until all your i’s are dotted then you’ll be too late.

try.” Dare to try.