LIZ ROWE (OCHO) In 2011, Rowe spent six months in Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador, and was amazed at the importance of cacao in the Mayan and Aztec cultures. Traded as currency, the beans permeated all aspects of life, and Rowe found herself searching for the different kinds of chocolate available. In Ecuador, a chocolate-maker told her making chocolate wasn’t easy. “The process itself is fairly straightforward, but there's a whole lot of variables along the way that can change and make it hard,” Rowe remembers the man saying, “and that the first thing I needed to do was learn more about chocolate by eating more of it, then to think very hard about going any further.” In true Kiwi style, Rowe said “say no more,” and spent a year at home researching and eating lots of different dark chocolate. “I realised I wanted a source of beans closer to home, so started investigating Pacific Islands and ended up visiting Papua New Guinea and meeting a wonderful group of farmers, exporters and people from the Cocoa Board,” she says. The resulting company Ocho – which stands for Otago Chocolate – was born and late last year broke PledgeMe’s record when it raised $2m in 32 hours for an expansion to cater for product demand. "New equipment and a larger facility will enable us to expand our production from 90kg of chocolate a week to up to a maximum of 200kg a day,'' Rowe says. www.ocho.co.nz TIM DEANE (NZ FOOD AND GROCERY COUNCIL) Goodman Fielder New Zealand managing director Tim Deane is the new chair of the NZFGC. With broad experience in the dairy, financial services, pharmaceutical and tourism sectors, Deane was managing director of Fonterra Brands New Zealand, Established more or less in 1648, radio and television personality and comedian Leigh Hart’s beer label Wakachangi has grown vigorously in the past couple of years. The Auckland based Hauraki drive-time broadcaster actually established the brand in 2011, with a view to producing lager that was truly ‘quite nice’, and now partners with McCashin’s in Nelson and distributes throughout the country. The beer is available from more than 700 stockists, and the company has developed an App that directs thirsty customers to their nearest source of the Wakachangi brew. “Beer has been a constant in my life during some very good times,” Hart says. www.wakachangi.com Since winning the world’s best Pinot Noir title from the International Wine and Spirit Competition, Takapoto Single Vineyard Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2017 creator Andy Anderson is still pinching himself. With an aroma resembling a raspberry coulis, his award-winning wine is the first he has never entered an award for. Anderson makes around 150 cases each vintage, using the facilities at Te Kauwhata’s Invivo Wines, co-owned by his old Lincoln University buddy Rob Cameron. The fruit is sourced from the Viticultura's Legends Terrace vineyard in Central Otago, and takes up to 14 months from when the de-stemmed grapes arrive until bottling. His career began in the Barossa Valley during his early winemaking years, and he’s since racked up experience in the UK and Spain. One of the unusual things Anderson does is use 100% new oak. He undertakes 16-hour days during vintage in April, but he’s not complaining. “Without good fruit, you can’t make purse out of a cow’s ear,” he says. www.iwsc.net/company/profile/9394 www.foodtechnology.co.nz 63 ANDY ANDERSON (TAKAPOTO ESTATE) LEIGH HART (WAKACHANGI BEER) and director of global sales for Fonterra Co-operative Group. He has also held senior positions at Sovereign Assurance, Bank of New Zealand, Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Tourism New Zealand. “Our members are a vital cog in New Zealand’s economy, accounting for 72% (or more than $31 billion) of total merchandise exports, and employing about 400,000 people, or one in five of the workforce,” he says. www.fgc.org.nz
FT-Annual Directory 2018-eMag
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