Small business Q&A

Haman Shahpari, co-founder of WaHiki Creamery, talks to Aimee Shaw about staying unique and selling into a crowded market

What does your business do? We’re an Epsom-based icecream company called WaHiki, which means time out in Maori, that was established in October 2016. We did our first production of the first flavour in the December. At the time nobody wanted to know us being a small company with one flavour of icecream, but last year we released three more flavours — chocolate, mango and matcha (Japanese green tea) with banana. All our icecreams are dairyfree, gluten-free and vegan, and we are currently the only icecream that has been certified by Coeliac New Zealand. Our products are also halal and sold in around 150 stores. everyone. Our icecream is made with coconut milk instead of cows’ milk which adds a coconut flavour but, from the feedback we’ve had, it is quite a subtle taste, not overpowering. How big is your team? It’s just me and Sergio Figueroa. We’re three partners who own the business but just two of us run it. What are you currently focused on? We just launched a world’s first icecream flavour of coconut turmeric latte, which is a part of our motto to stay away from all the me too flavours that everyone offers like the hokey pokeys, salted caramels and chocolate chips. We want to make ice cream that is more holistic, artisan and wholesome. The turmeric icecream has turmeric, ginger, cinnamon and black pepper, and it has less than 10g of sugar.The small tubs are $4.50 and the big ones between $8 to $10. We want to know your small business story. Email aimeeshaw@nzherald.co.nz biologist but I decided to take a leap and try something myself for myself. means I’ve done my job well, and that’s the ambition. Where did the inspiration to call the business WaHiki come from? I’d been trying to find a name to give the business a Kiwiana feel.With the name I wanted people to recognise that the product comes from New Zealand no matter what corner of the world it is in. One day I was looking at all of the words that people have given us in the feedback groups that we have run about what do you feel about icecream when you eat it, and a couple of the words that came out of that were divine and time out. Someone said they take time out to have an icecream so I looked these words up in Maori and one that really stuck with me was WaHiki. What’s the biggest challenge you face ?