Honey firm introduces pouch

Its developers say this honey brand has been 180 years in the making but 1839 is using innovation and a modern approach to grow its market profile.

The company is named after the year Mary Brumby arrived in New Zealand, bringing with her the country’s first two beehives.

Introducing European honey bees to the ma¯ nuka bush created the best honey in the world, 1839’s general manager of creative direction Hannah Dobbie said.

‘‘Mary Brumby’s story aligns with female empowerment and the company’s egalitarian approach; 1839 was the history and origins of the New Zealand honey industry.’’

Dobbie and partner Rob Mcconnachie started not with two beehives but with two honey drums, which they transported on the back of Mcconnachie’s ute to their first factory, an old shed next to their pub in Matakana.

The couple now processes more than 200 tonnes of honey at a purpose-built factory in Tauranga. They launched the 1839 brand 18 months ago, rebranding from the name NZ Health Naturally, Dobbie said.

The company had been exporting honey for 15 years and 90 per cent of its product was sold overseas, she said.

But 1839 has a new deal with Foodstuffs to stock a range of products in New World, Pak ‘n Save and Four Square supermarkets. The company has been selling honey in New Zealand for eight weeks and has launched a new squeezable honey pouch.

Mcconnachie, 1839 chief executive, said the pouch provided a solution to the problem of getting that elusive last drop of honey. Dobbie said the company was focused on product development and had spent eight months researching the new product.

‘‘We wanted something that was convenient and easy to use.’’

She said 1839 had exclusive rights to the pouch in Australia and New Zealand.

Mcconnachie said the company wanted to maintain a family feel as it grew. ‘‘We pay our beekeepers a good price for honey, as they need to be able to run their hives well and manage them properly throughout the seasons,’’ Mcconnachie said.

‘‘We don’t want to be the country’s biggest honey company, we want to build an innovative company that is profitable and looks after its people.’’

Dobbie said the company employed seven people at its factory and had a 40 per cent share of a small beekeeping operation in Taihape. ‘‘It keeps us in the loop of looking after bees and making sure we are doing something right for the environment.’’

The rest of of 1839’s honey is purchased from the same beekeepers the company has been using since it started.

Dobbie said 1839’s products all carried a ‘‘trust code’’ on their labels. Trust Codes is a technology company specialising in brand protection which operates in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Singapore.

Shoppers can use a QR code reader app on their mobile phones to scan 1839 products.

They then get confirmation of the product’s authenticity, location of origin, ingredients, interesting facts and figures, and any scientific results related to the product. Dobbie said using trust codes was a measure against counterfeit product damaging the brand’s reputation.

‘‘For every single product, that QR code is unique.

‘‘So you can really trace where in the world it has been scanned and what has happened to it and collect all that data.’’

Another point of difference for 1839 was a proprietary method the company had developed; a ‘‘triple-churn’’ technique, which Mcconnachie said gave the honey a unique silky-smooth texture. Dobbie said the company had been working on perfecting the creaming process that all New Zealand honey undergoes because it has a tendency to crystallise and go lumpy.

The couple also plans to expand its export markets with support from NZ Trade and Enterprise and is receiving funding to develop markets in China.

The company recently received two awards at the inaugural London Honey Awards, Mcconnachie said, a gold award for quality and silver for design.