Veggie mince plants seed for success
Debbie and Nigel Stowe’s healthy dried veggie mince Vince is on the the cusp of making it big in New Zealand supermarkets. The brand is poised to become a core brand in Foodstuffs stores from the middle of the year, as long as the Whangārei company can raise the capital to get there. Reporter Denise Piper sits down with the couple behind the brand.
Debbie and Nigel Stowe know their dried vegetable mince Vince is tasty and nutritious — the challenge now is to tell the rest of the country how good it is.
The Whangārei couple first started making Vince as a healthy, gluten-free, dairy-free meat alternative for their daughter Olivia, who suffered severe eczema from a young age.
“I missed my family favourites like cottage pie but alternatives at the supermarket were so ultra-processed and bad for you,” said Debbie.
Company Olive & Ash was formed, and Vince launched as a product, after Debbie won Northland Inc’s business development programme The Pick in 2019.
Originally entering The Pick with an organic granola, the programme helped her to see the premium granola market was already saturated, while Vince offered something not available in New Zealand.
Each 100g pack of Vince contains nearly 500g of vegetables, which are dried slowly under low heat to create a pantry product which is not only nutritious but full of flavour and texture, Debbie explained.
While vegetarians and vegans were their first customers, the Stowes soon realised meat-eaters were adding Vince to beef mince, as it offered an easy hit of vegetables and flavour.
Getting Kiwis to add more vegetables to their diet soon became the main goal, said Nigel.
“Only about 4 to 5 per cent of [NZ] kids get their minimum daily requirement of vegetables and adults are only slightly better at 10 per cent. This is an easy way to get more,” he said.
More awards soon followed, with Vince winning the pantry award at the 2021 NZ Food Awards, followed by the New World Small Supplier Category at the 2022 FoodStarter awards, run by Foodstuffs.
The Foodstuffs award has opened the door for Vince to get into national supermarkets.
Currently it is stocked in about 50 New World stores, as well as Farro Fresh stores in Auckland.
From the middle of the year, there are plans to go into a further 100 New World, Pak’nSave and Four Square stores, with Vince set to become a core brand with Foodstuffs.
But Debbie admitted scaling-up has not been easy.
“It’s quite expensive to launch nationwide due to marketing support and product awareness.”
The Stowes have spent the last year trying to raise capital to expand the business and, given the cost of living crisis, it was the worst year to raise money, she said.
They are still talking with investors to secure the cash Vince needs to expand.
Nigel said the time taken to raise capital was not unexpected, given most “overnight successes” have actually been in business for five years. “That’s where we feel like we are, we’re right on the edge of breaking through,” he said.
The Stowes had planned to manufacture in Northland but, having decided it didn’t make sense for the start-up to run a manufacturing company, they are now talking with a contractor in Christchurch.
They also tried to get more Northlandgrown produce in their packs, but a trial at Te Rarawaowned Bells Produce in Kaitāia saw the entire crop covered in nearly 1m of water during Cyclone Gabrielle. The cyclone also caused one of Vince’s key ingredients, cauliflower, to soar in price to about $9 a head, wholesale.
Despite the difficulties, the Stowes have held firm on a promise to use only NZ-grown ingredients, rather than importing cheaper vegetables. It helps that Vince can take vegetables of any shape, size and colour, making it easier for growers to sell all their stock, Debbie said.
Vince’s long shelf life, with each foil pack lasting two years, means the veggie mince does not need to be manufactured yearround and it will now only be manufactured in the best cauliflower growing season.
Business and love a happy marriage for the Stowes
Despite the business challenges, Vince has not driven a wedge in Debbie and Nigel’s marriage, and the couple clearly work well together, finishing each other’s sentences during the
Northern Advocate interview. The Stowes previously worked together when they owned Bank St cafe Nectar from 2007 to 2016, winning multiple awards there as well.
They bring their own strengths to the business, as Debbie is a trained chef with 20 years’ experience and Nigel is a business analyst at Northpower.
With Vince, the aim of getting Kiwis eating more vegetables has driven the Stowes through all the hurdles, said Debbie.
“We’ve had lots of different obstacles to get through, it’s just kept driving us forward.”
Support systems have included women’s founders network Electrify Aotearoa and Flying Kiwi Angels (FKA), with the Stowes now hoping to give back by mentoring newer Kiwi businesses.
International expansion for Vince on the cards
As well as Vince being sold in NZ supermarkets, some packets have been exported to Japan where the product has been used in unusual ways, Nigel said.
“They mix Vince into their oats and omelettes, which isn’t what we expected,” he said.
“Lots of Asian countries use dry products, while NZ and Australia rely more heavily on fresh and frozen. So, we see our product as a good fit for the Asian market.”
Once Vince expands nationwide, the Stowes have their eyes on exporting more to Australia, Japan and the United States, with the product able to be sold through the likes of Amazon.
Despite the large horizons, Debbie and Nigel said they will remain a Whangārei business, based in Onerahi, close to the school that Debbie attended as a child.