Chain scoops up organic icecream
Foodstuffs NZ gets taste for Rush Munro’s new product range and takes 34,300 tubs
Foodstuffs NZ gets taste for Rush Munro’s new product range and takes 34,300 tubs
Hastings icecream-maker Rush Munro’s is going national, after a leading supermarket chain gobbled up six months of supply in one sitting.
Just one month after Hastingsbased Rush Munro’s started a new organic product range, sales representatives offloaded 34,300 tubs of icecream at their first pitch to Foodstuffs NZ, which owns the New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square supermarket chains.
Rush Munro’s owner John Bostock, who is also New Zealand’s largest organic apple producer, said the company had been overwhelmed by the appetite for organic icecream.
“The timing is right for organic icecream as consumers are so much more aware of where their food comes from. They want to eat quality but they also have an environmental conscience and want to know it’s been produced sustainably. So it’s important that we provide an organic choice in the freezer.”
General manager Vaughan Currie said the new organic range took a long time to create. Every ingredient had to be organic and many were difficult to source.
“It’s taken us almost two years to create the decadent organic flavours because sourcing organic ingredients on a commercial scale is challenging.
“For every flavour we have to have the right organic credentials. The regulations around organic certification are very strict in New Zealand.
“So we are sourcing whole organic scorched almonds, chocolate and ginger biscuits and then cutting them by hand and we make our coffee extract from scratch. We also batch churn the icecream in small runs so much of the production is done by hand with little machinery. Everything is very artisan and not mass produced so a real labour of love.” Bostock said it was a big change for a little business, but the move to organics was in line with the Bostock Group philosophy of environmentally sustainable food production.
“There are over 30 icecream brands in the freezer and we are seeing more big international players coming into our New Zealand market.
“It’s a challenge for a small Hawke’s Bay icecream company to compete.”
Rush Munro’s, founded in 1926, is the country’s oldest icecream producer.
As part of the launch of the new organic icecream, Currie said two caravans would take Currie and Bostock on a road trip around the North Island to give Kiwis a taster.
The Rush Munro’s icecream parlour in Hastings has a limited supply of selected organic flavours available.