USA Market Activation for Restore Wholefoods Bone Broth

AGMARDT is supporting established family business Greenlea Premier Meats to launch its new restorative value-add bone broth product into the United States retail market.

Greenlea, which started as a small butchery in Gisborne some 80 years ago, is now an export processor with two plants located in the Waikato. It also operates the Greenlea Butcher Shop providing online shopping and home delivery for export quality beef, lamb and venison.

Restore Wholefoods bone broth is a Greenlea subsidiary. The company invested in the brand and IP to manufacture the Restore chicken and beef bone broth, which has already been launched successfully into the New Zealand market.

This project is designed to provide insight and confidence to take the product to North America.

Julie McDade, Greenlea Business Development Manager and Restore Project Manager, says this is part of the company’s future focused strategy of adding value to every part of the carcass and moving into a direct-to-consumer model.

“As an historically business-to-business company, strongly focused on commodity exports, transitioning to a business to customer model is cutting edge for us. This project takes us into a completely new space in terms of product category and sales and marketing strategy.”

Export of a retail ready FMCG product requires a strong brand strategy, the capability to build brand awareness and business to customer expertise, says Julie.

“Having AGMARDT on board as an investment partner has given us real confidence to move forward.”

AGMARDT’s investment has enabled Greenlea to access the in-market expertise to develop and refine its sales strategy through partnering with First Light Foods. As a producer and exporter of New Zealand wagyu beef into the US, First Light has local expertise and links in FMCG retail. Greenlea also processes First Light’s beef.

“This project aims to help us better understand the US consumer and how we can differentiate a New Zealand made product from one made in the States with our unique attributes such as our low carbon production system, our zero-carbon policy, our high animal welfare standards, our environmental stewardship and more.

“We also need to communicate to potential consumers these unique attributes and this knowledge will allow us to maximise returns as we tailor an in-market campaign.

“Our success with this product will give us the confidence to invest in research and development required for new product development. It’s also a steppingstone for other companies like ours to chart a course in a new market.”

Julie says Greenlea also has plans to develop a range of health and wellness products derived from animal proteins and animal peptides under the Restore Wholefoods brand umbrella. These products might include meat snacks, protein bars, collagen and more.

“We’d look to collaborate within the sector for some of these further developments such as collagen.”

Greenlea has invested in value-add in other areas including its ‘value add room’ that provides retail portions/packaging and further processing such as mince, diced and stir fry. The strategy has also been expanded to an investment in Waitoa Tannery to add value to hides and skins.

“We’re also involved in a joint venture looking to add value to pet food ingredients. So the Restore project is about adding value to beef and chicken bones through the addition at our Morrinsville plant of a bone broth product.”

Greenlea is also actively working to develop a sustainable business model, including creating a data analytics tool that has enabled the business to generate its baseline GHG emissions footprint for 2019. The company will continue our work in this area this year through development of a plan for mitigating and/or offsetting its GHG emissions. Greenlea is also an active participant in the New Zealand Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.