An Adventure

I’m not sure I know what I’m getting myself into here!

But then, that’s been true of my Lewis Road Creamery adventure from day one.

Recently, we learnt that we are rated as the third most trusted food brand in the country after Whittaker’s (of course!) and Heinz Watties. We also learnt, that not many people knew much about the people behind our products and there was a real desire to know more.

So I’ve decided to address that by starting this. A blog. It’s a great day to do so because it’s Lewis Road Creamery’s fourth birthday today!

My youngest, Grace (our first Roadie on Facebook), has promised to follow me (so that’s one follower at least) and will hopefully guide me when I stray from blog orthodoxy.

Lewis Road Creamery started with a mission.

I couldn’t understand why the best butter on the supermarket shelf was Lurpak, a Danish import. My standard diet is bread, butter and ham, so I know my butter well! Why, it occurred to me, was the best butter coming from the other side of the world? Why shouldn’t New Zealand make not only the best butter, but the best dairy products — be they milk, cheese, yoghurt, etc?

And that raised the larger question. Why should New Zealand remain so focussed on commodities when our future as a country exists surely in producing high value branded products that can compete on the world stage, and that do justice to the efforts of a dairy industry that works so hard? I firmly believe our future is about quality over quantity and value over volume.

While we’re only minnows in a tank of killer whales, many of the enquiries we do receive are from curious minds eager to understand the new rules of business in an age when all the old rules can be thrown out. There’s lots of room for and need of, more minnows.

So come join us in the tank. Dive in.

One thing I know for certain. It’s never been easier to start a business than in today’s economy where social media allows anyone with a good idea and a passion to follow it to be able to gain a foothold on the path of success. (Even if you take your first foothold with a fin.)

That classic opening line in Dickens’s ‘Tail of Two Cities’ springs to mind. ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. And that, frankly, is what it sometimes feels like to me as we work furiously and passionately to demonstrate what I believe is New Zealand’s best direction to optimise our wonderful natural resources and at the same time grow and thrive in a market that is super competitive.

I’ll tell you this. The excitement, the challenges, the sheer fun of doing what New Zealand lets us do is something I wouldn’t want to miss for all the tea in China.

And that’s what I want to share with you.

Stay posted… Next time, I can’t wait to talk about our latest product, Double Caramel Milk created with Chelsea Winter. It may have broken some world records. Best you wrap your taste buds around it, and we’ll talk soon.