YOU’LL SCREAM FOR THIS
WAHIKI CREAMERY HAS SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED AND GROWN A DAIRY- FREE ICE CREAM BRAND THAT MEETS CHANGING CONSUMER DEMANDS.
WaHiki Creamery has successfully grown a dairy-free ice cream brand that meets changing consumer demands.
Winning the Westpac Auckland Awards’ first-ever ‘People’s Choice’ category and being a finalist in both the Excellence in Marketing and Best Emerging Business categories has catapulted WaHiki (“time out” in Te Reo), a business that is less than two years old, into the spotlight for its uniqueness and innovation.
There is a global and local trend to plant-based food. But applied to New Zealand’s highly competitive ice cream market? That has required the skill and experience of well-regarded financier and businessman Ronnie Tan; Haman Shahpari, with many years in the packaging industry; and Sergio Figueroa, with a career in the fitness industry.
“We all share a passion for a healthy dessert alternative everyone can enjoy,” explains WaHiki CEO Shahpari. “That means health- and image-conscious people; gluten- and dairy-intolerant; vegans and Muslims. And those demanding the healthier production of all food.
“Our claim to uniqueness extends to having no other New Zealand ice cream company offering vegan matcha ice cream and no other competitor in the world providing coconut turmeric latte. Plus, we claim leadership on taste and texture, with less sugar and fewer calories.”
In addition to the coconut turmeric latte flavour, WaHiki offers three further flavours with reduced sugar content: chocolate, mango and vanilla. The turmeric latte also contains black pepper (to activate turmeric’s main ingredient curcumin) ginger, cinnamon and banana puree, and it took 15 trials to achieve the perfect blend of flavours.
“The award confirms we are absolutely on the right track,” says Shahpari, “and changing the game in our field. We took painstaking measures to research the market we are in and understand what our consumers wanted.
“Add to that research by the food technologist team who can ‘ turn information into product’; significant relationships; lateral thinking and hard work, and you have an insight into what it takes to succeed in this business.”
Shahpari stresses they’re still getting to grips with their rapid local growth. There have been forays into the export market in the Islands and a significant breakthrough into the Chinese market, with an order from Cathay Future – Asia’s biggest childcare centre with 20,000 enrolled children.
The team has worked hard since launching in October 2016 with a single coconut vanilla ice cream product, which had them scratching for growth in a jammed market over that Christmas/New Year period.
“We like to think of ourselves as young, ambitious and incredibly hard-working,” says Figueroa, a qualified sport nutritionist and coach who is also on a vegan diet. “And we operate with the modus operandi of: ‘if there’s a will, there’s a way.’
“WaHiki has come a long way since that early wake-up experience. You must appreciate our base-cost is three-and-a-half times that of dairy. A litre of dairy milk costs around $1: coconut milk costs more than $3.5 per litre.
“We are essentially in two markets: ice cream and dairy-free. For this reason, it was critical to offer a distinct product to achieve cut-through.
“To gain more traction and offer an even more obvious pointof-difference, we decided to stay away from the ‘ me too’ flavours saturating the market, like salted caramels, hokey-pokeys and cookies-and-creams.
“So, we looked at creating a decadent, delicious, premium ice cream which was also significantly lower in sugar and offered new flavours, while meeting all our other targets.
“The final product was a result of painstaking and timeconsuming work by our food technologists and formulation experts to ensure this ice cream was not only a world-first, but delicious. And its uniqueness did not sacrifice ‘decadence’, or reduce from the ‘treat’ nature of ice cream.”
Challenges abound. Their matcha flavour is made using ‘the highest grade matcha powder from Japan’.
“Matcha is an acquired taste and can be described as ‘somewhat bitter’, says Shahpari. “We worked closely with food technologists who blended banana puree into its formulation to balance out the overriding flavours. It took 30 trials of different premium matcha powders to achieve an optimal taste.”
He explains that WaHiki’s financial performance is heavily impacted by the business’s start-up costs. “Our packaging lead times are quite high and to keep prices low we’ve had to order in bulk, which means we have excess packaging siting in storage waiting to be used.
“We use local suppliers to give us security of supply and flexibility.”
MARKET STRATEGY
WaHiki’s initial strategy to increase market exposure was to approach Coeliac New Zealand to become coeliac (Crossed Grain) certified.
“Via a third-party assured qualitytesting programme, which involved a rigorous audit of our ice cream and ingredients, we were able to obtain the status of New Zealand’s first and, currently, only ice cream brand to be certified coeliac-safe,” says Shahpari.
“In March 2017, we revisited all our packaging and absorbed hefty costs to change them to include the coeliac and halal-certified logos for current and future markets. This plays a major role in our point-of-difference and reinforces our products in a niche market – which is consistent and loyal,” he says.
“Those two relationships have been key in opening new markets. Other relationships, especially on distribution, have also been critical. In August 2017, we enthusiastically pursued a relationship with Foodstuffs after the Auckland Food Show, where we exhibited. By midNovember we had our range stocked in Foodstuffs North Island branches, and we’ve just secured a deal to supply into 12 Countdown supermarkets in Auckland as a trial for a nationwide rollout.”
Shahpari says WaHiki’s overall vision is to become the frozen dessert of choice across different industries.
“Due to the nature of our product: all the good without the bad.”