Butter aficionados are in for a treat with Lewis Road Creamery’s premium butter finally available in New Zealand supermarkets.
The grass-fed, traditionally churned butter launched in supermarkets on Monday, two years after it became the first New Zealand dairy product to be stocked by US grocery chain Whole Foods Markets.
In New Zealand, the butter has a recommended retail price of $7.49 per 227-gram block. In the US, where it is often the most expensive butter on the shelf, it has a current retail price of more than NZ$10 a block.
Prem Maan, executive chairman of Lewis Road Creamery and its parent company Southern Pastures, said the lower price for New Zealand consumers was to acknowledge the butter’s local provenance and the reduced transport costs of selling it at home.
The butter is made from Southern Pastures’ own cream which meets independently audited 10 Star Certified Values, which cover criteria including grass-fed, free-range, animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and climate change mitigation.
“The reality is that it costs a lot to farm the way that we do. For example, at least 34 cents of every pat of butter is directly related to environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation costs incurred on-farm, and these are just two of our 10 values,” Maan said.
“We believe that New Zealanders with discerning palates and with an interest in genuine sustainability will support us, knowing that we are investing back into our land, soil and water.”
Southern Pastures’ cows are fed a 99 per cent grass and forage-based diet which is GMO and PKE-free, a decision the company made to preserve global biodiversity, reduce its carbon footprint, and provide the healthiest dairy possible.
“We don’t feed our cows cheap imported feed to pump up milk production when we have low seasonal grass growth. So, we invest in growing, storing and feeding-out a proper locally grown forage-based diet, as we believe that is one of the requirements for sustainable farming,” Maan said.
Southern Pastures is also investing heavily in native plantings, soil sequestration of carbon and other greenhouse gas mitigation initiatives.
Maan said that investment was part of a strategy to have its farms achieve carbon-neutral – and eventual climate-positive – status through farming practices, rather than buying carbon credits generated through planting exotic single-species forests on productive land.
“In the States we’ve been able to command our premium due to these sustainability measures, and also the exceptional quality of the butter and its nutritional profile. We are proving that educated consumers want and are willing to pay for values-for money.”
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The boutique dairy company, founded by former Saatchi & Saatchi boss Peter Cullinane and now owned by investment firm Southern Pastures, will be introducing the product into the domestic market this month.
Lewis Road and Southern Pastures executive chairman Prem Maan said the ‘super-premium’ product is traceable to a small group of Asure Quality-audited 10-Star certification farms owned by the vertically-integrated group – much like a single origin wine.
This differs from the current Lewis Road butter available domestically which is a blend using milk from a number of suppliers, and is sold for $6.90 for 250g.
The super-premium butter will have a domestic RRP of $7.49 for 227g when it goes on sale at Foodstuffs and Countdown – a substantial discount on the NZ$10 it sells for at leading US grocery stores, including the coveted Whole Foods Market.
“We have been able to provide a domestic price that is cheaper than our export price, which reflects our reduced transport costs selling here at home,” Maan said.
Despite this cost-saving supporting the launch of a new product domestically, Maan said the company at large was grappling with rising input costs and would likely have to revisit pricing across its portfolio, which spanned milk, butter cream, ice cream, and flavoured milk.
“Inflation is really an ugly, growing issue and something that people under 30 haven’t really experienced before,” Maan said.
“We do have some natural hedge for our export products [because of Southern Pastures’ ownership of some supplier farms], but for others we don’t.
“For those products, costs are going up – literally all of them are going up. While we are resisting for as long as we can, at some stage those increases will have to be passed on to consumers.”
Rather than seeing inflation as a one-off Covid-19 driven event, the former investment banker believed it was a permanent structural shift.
“I credit the Reserve Bank for being one of the first central banks in the world to see the signs and started to tighten, but that creates its own set of problems for business and consumers,” he said.
“So inflation is really going to be a problem for FMCG going forward.”
Against this backdrop, Lewis Road was banking on the sustainability credentials of its super-premium butter to convert consumers over time.
“The reality is that it costs a lot to farm the way that we do, and to prove it through independent auditing at every step of the way,” Maan said.
“We’ve taken a moral position that we won’t fall back on cheap palm kernel expeller to pump up production when we have low seasonal grass growth. So we have to invest in growing, storing and feeding-out forage-based diet.
“That’s a decision to preserve global biodiversity, to reduce our carbon footprint, and also to provide the healthiest product possible, because we know there are quality benefits that show up in the butter as a result.”
Maan said better nutrition and better environment were priorities and the super-premium butter was expensive to produce because of these commitments.
“We trust that by explaining these things and sticking to our principles, the butter and its quality, taste, and provenance will resonate with consumers over time.”
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]]>Us Urban Listers sure do luuurve a good degustation. Truth be told, we love any activity that involves stuffing our faces. That’s why when we found out there’s a legit degustation dedicated to Lewis Road Creamery and their faaabulous goodies we—quite simply, lost our shit.
That’s right fellow food-loving Aucklanders, Lewis Road Creamery have power-coupled up with Hundred Acre Food and together are bringing an entire dessert degustation our way for our eating pleasure!
This will by far beat our 1am Tim-Tam-and-icecream-on-the-kitchen-floor-food-athons.
On for two nights only, aaaall the creamy, dreamy, decadent Lewis Road goodness can be all up in your tummy for $39 a pop
Now, just what exactly can you expect from this delish-a-thon? Three whole courses of pure yumminess, that’s what.
There’s a decadent churro, choccy mousse, ice cream, salted caramel and sponge cake concoction to get your mouth thoroughly watering. As well as that, a magical fairy floss and rose ice-cream dish is thrown in the mix. Sweet tooth tingling yet?
And, if you haven’t quite dreamed yourself into a food coma enough, then you’ll be stoked to know they’ve whipped up a very special cookie paired with—you guessed it—Lewis Road’s signature velvety milk!
Tickets are super duper limited to get in quick. Get your spoons and dessert stomachs at the ready, this is gonna be a goodie!
To view the original article, click here.
]]>Beloved Kiwi dairy brand Lewis Road Creamery has once again knocked it out of the park with a new flavour combination, this time combining ice cream with one of our favourite five o'clock bevvies.
Claiming to be the perfect dessert for a "summer of sophistication", they've released a Lemon and Gin Botanicals ice cream — think creamy vanilla ice cream, fresh lemon curd and a "hint" of gin botanicals. Judging by the ingredients list, the 'gin' element comes from flavour extracts, so this is one that's safe for the kids as well.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock you've probably heard of Lewis Road: the brand has become synonymous with cult-favourites and record sellouts. Who can forget the security-guarded supermarket aisles during the Great Artisanal Chocolate Milk Frenzy of 2014, or the summer of 2017 when we all got buzzed on bottles of chocolate cream liqueur?
If those releases are anything to go by, this ice cream will also probably sell out on supermarket shelves in record time, so we'd recommend getting in to try it ASAP. A pint, two spoons, a pal and a good spot on the beach — that's summer sorted. Primo.
Lewis Road Creamery's new Lemon and Gin Botanicals ice cream is available from New World supermarkets nationwide. For more information and a full list of ingredients, check out the website.
To view the original article, click here.
By Tamsyn Parker
Southern Pastures - the owner of Lewis Road Creamery - is to get discounts on the interest rate of its loan if it meets certain environmental targets in a deal with the BNZ and its funding syndicate.
The three year $50 million loan is the first farm sustainably-linked loan to be done in New Zealand.
It will see Southern Pastures receive financial incentives for meeting water quality and biodiversity targets and reductions in on-farm carbon emissions.
Southern Pastures owns 20 farms in Waikato and Canterbury and produces milk under an independently certified 10 Star Certified Values programme which stipulates strict environmental, climatic, animal and human welfare requirements.
Its Waikato farms which supply Fonterra include the largest organic farm in the country.
Prem Maan, Southern Pastures executive chairman, said the deal recognised that farming to mitigate climate change and environmental impacts was in the common interests of both the business and its lenders.
"In my view, farming in New Zealand should be driven by the ambition to become carbon neutral."
Dana Muir, BNZ head of natural capital, said Southern Pastures was a leader in the New Zealand primary sector with ambitious environmental goals.
"It made sense to partner with them to show that capital incentives can deliver financial and environmental benefits.
"The environmental targets linked to the loan are ambitious and go beyond compliance minimums – achieving them will require innovative on-farm planning, practices and reporting," Muir said.
BNZ chief executive Angela Mentis said the bank had developed the loan structure to help deliver carbon reductions and sustainable benefits.
She said the BNZ would increasingly seek to use Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-linked lending with New Zealand farmers, agribusinesses and other sectors to help meet New Zealand's climate change obligations.
"We want to partner with businesses who are striving to go above and beyond compliance minimums and show what best practice in environmental management, labour and governance looks like."
AsureQuality will act an independent on-farm auditor, visiting the farms on an annual basis to collect data and verify progress against targets.
Discounts to interest rates will be applied during the term of the loan provided interim and final targets are met and verified.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>During a mammoth cooking session on her Instagram Stories, Chrissy Teigen revealed how she makes her favourite midnight snack - a good ol' tuna sandwich - showing an image of her butter of choice.
Teigen shows off an empty wrapper of New Zealand-made Lewis Road Creamery sea salt crystal butter, which she melts to use on white bread, in her tuna and onion sandwiches.
A fan spotted the Kiwi brand on Teigen's Instagram Stories and posted a screenshot to Twitter, which prompted the American model to further rave about the butter.
"It's SO good," Teigen wrote on Twitter.
"It pops flavor [sic] into my midnight tuna sandwich. If you don't butter both slices for your tuna sandwich, you are...u are prob a fine person honestly, but u should try it."
Lewis Road Creamery also shared the love from Teigen in their own Instagram Stories.
Teigen's post led to several social media users raving about the New Zealand-made butter as well.
Lewis Road Creamery General Manager, Nicola O'Rourke, told the Herald the company is glad to see Teigen, who "is a serious cook", can "taste the difference".
"It was so cool to wake up and see our butter blowing up online. Chrissy is a serious cook and it's awesome she can taste the difference, which all comes down to the quality of our Southern Pastures 10 Star cream," O'Rourke said.
Teigen, who is married to singer John Legend, is a model, author and entrepreneur. Her cookbook, "Cravings: Hungry for More", is a bestseller.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>This year, the glittery, frosted crown of New Zealand's top icecream was bestowed upon two unlikely flavour contenders; vanilla and mint chocolate.
The NZ Icecream Awards 2020 unveiled their two champion sweets: the NZ Icecream Manufacturers Association Supreme Champion award was scooped up by Much Moore’s ‘Awesome Vanilla Ice Cream.’ While Lewis Road Creamery’s Double Mint and Dark Chocolate icecream won the Formula Food’s Supreme Boutique Champion gong.
And while some may call vanilla too plain, and mint chocolate has long divided family allegiances, the judges’ decision urges audiences to suspend any hesitation they may have.
Chief Judge Jackie Matthews said both had perfected their product.
“Ingredients used, recipes, processing controls, packing, and freezing – it’s the attention to detail in every aspect and bringing it together with the right balance which achieves excellence.”
Matthews describes Much Moore’s Awesome Vanilla, which comes from an award winning lineage of icecreams including NZ’s Best Hokey Pokey 2012, as superbly smooth and creamy. It also took out the top spot of Champion Premium Vanilla ice cream.
It’s also a favourite for modern day Willy Wonka himself, Marcus Moore, who’s the founder of the Much Moore dairy dynasty. He fiercely defends vanilla from being boring.
“I love vanilla – take it from me, I’ve been making icecream for 25 years!”
The secret is its versatility.
“It goes with everything from creme brulee to fruit. There’s nothing better than a very delicate flavour of a vanilla icecream,” enthuses Moore, “it’s like a lobster or crayfish there’s something so special about it.”
He was raised in the icy wonderland of frozen desserts (his Dad had a local icecream company called Kiwi) before launching Much Moore in 2004 to explore his vision for fresh icecream flavours.
“We were the first company to put four flavours in one tub,” explains Moore, referencing the iconic 2005 Awesome Foursome icecream made of gumdrops, cookies & cream, vanilla and chocolate.
They started out selling a few thousand units a month - now they make 120,000. Likewise, the team has swelled from a dozen when they began to just under a hundred, although they’ve been in the same icecream factory on Auckland’s North Shore for 25 years.
They’ve been entering the NZ icecream awards for almost as long - and are predictably ecstatic about the win this year.
“We’ve been entering the awards as long as they’ve been going,” which is well over 20 years, “they’re a massive deal in the industry.”
“If you win here in NZ you’re right up there globally. We've got a reputation as one of the best icecream producers in the world.”
Speaking of world renowned brands, Lewis Road Creamery’s winner, the Double Mint and Dark Chocolate, was described as “superbly crafted” by head judge Matthews.
“The flavour was fresh peppermint with a hint of spearmint, perfectly balanced with chocolate flakes. Rich and creamy, it had a lovely chocolate melt.”
The melt is in part due to Lewis Road Cremery’s emphasis on high fat, super indulgent, softly scoop-able ice cream across all their ice cream products – they place special emphasis on the scoop.
“We were talking around the kitchen table,” says Nicola O’Rourke, General Manager of Lewis Road Creamery, “and we agreed it’s so annoying when you have to wait for the ice cream to thaw before you scoop into it. You don't want to sit around having a regret moment, you want to eat it now!”
The double mint and dark chocolate is similarly indulgent in its ingredients.
“It has both natural peppermint and spearmint together, which is an unusual combination," explains O’Rourke, “and then the chocolate isn't chocolate chips, it is actual shards of 72 per cent dark chocolate. We like to call it an adult take on mint choc chip.”
She also acknowledges that the mint chocolate flavour can be a divisive one.
“I think people judge mint chocolate icecream on the after dinner mints of the 70s and 80s,” she explains, “when that was the most decadent thing you could get as an after dinner treat!”
But this isn't that, rather it’s a treat for dark chocolate lovers. “If you love dark chocolate, and like a refreshing bite to your palate, this is you. It’s a beautifully fresh dark chocolate moment – not an after dinner mint!"
Lewis Road moved into making premium ice cream about five years in to launching its premium dairy brand in 2012.
“International brands were flooding the market, and we sat around thinking, we have some of the best dairy in the world, so why aren’t we making the best icecream in the world?” explains O’Rourke.
“New Zealand can do better than this!”
Hamilton born, millennial favourite Duck Island has also been recognised this year with the People’s Choice award for their Fairy Bread icecream.
It’s their first time entering, and the multicoloured, nostalgia soaked treat has always been a crowd favourite.
“It’s definitely my kids favourite! I think it's the sprinkles....” says Duck Island co-founder, Cameron Farmilo.
The boutique brand has rocketed into the hearts of the young and hip since beginning in 2014. And a large part of that is due to feel-good romantic flavours such as Fairy Bread.
“We buy a local brioche and then soak that into the mix,” says Farmilo, “and then when you taste it, there is this incredible buttery flavour.”
Farmilo credits their success to all three owners’ background in restaurants. He and the other two founders, Morgan Glass and Kimberly Higgison, used to own Hamilton restaurant Chim Choo Ree.
It was a fine dining restaurant with a deliberately relaxed environment.
“Coming from that fine dining background taught us that you can’t keep doing the same boring flavours.”
It was at this restaurant that they developed their iconic miso and white chocolate icecream, which kicked off their entire journey into professional icecream.
“We served it in the restaurant, then we entered it into the Cuisine awards and when it did well, so we were like, right, we’d better take this seriously and start packaging it!”
But all in all they just make things they want to eat themselves.
“We make it for ourselves,” says Farmilo.
‘“It’s not about overheads or profit or a product to put in supermarkets. It’s about making what tastes great, and we want to eat.”
To view the original article, click here.
]]>Health conscious consumers and lockdown baking helped Kiwi premium dairy company Lewis Road Creamery weather what has been a tough year for many businesses.
The seven-year-old business was bought by dairy farm investment fund Southern Pastures this month, as part of an incremental buyout deal that began in 2017.
In less than decade of operation, Lewis Road Creamery has seen tremendous growth. It won the Deloitte Fast 50 rising star category in 2015.
Its general manager, Nicola O’Rourke, said Lewis Road Creamery had been on a very fast growth trajectory in its early years, propelled in its early years by the success of its chocolate milk collaboration with Whittaker’s.
Demand for its flavoured milk outstripped supply and the in 2014 the company said it went through 3000 kilograms of Whittaker's five roll refined creamy milk chocolate and 24,000 litres of milk a week.
O’Rourke said the company had focused the last five years on growing its export market, selling premium butter to the United States, Australia and as of last year, China.
Lewis Road Creamery’s $10 butter was selling in Wholefoods, Amazon and in Australia at Woolworths, she said.
“Searching for those high-value markets was important because we wanted to show we were continuing to return a great image of New Zealand and a high-value proposition back to the country,” O’Rourke said.
“What we've learnt over time is that consumers overseas really want grass-fed, GMO-free sustainably produced products. We've got something special to offer even though we may take it for granted here.”
O’Rourke said Covid-19 had boosted sales for the small company with 20 staff, as conscious consumers had a stronger focus on trustworthy products with transparency.
“We're still a team of only 20 trying to tackle the world. It's been a really exciting journey.”
While many businesses had been hit hard by Covid-19, Lewis Road Creamery had managed to buck the trend largely due to overseas demand for trusted food and beverage companies and in New Zealand, the rise in lockdown baking.
“The supermarket almost becomes people's playground during lockdowns because you can't go to any other places, so lets give them some choice.”
O’Rourke said, under the new ownership, Lewis Road Creamery could source dairy from Southern Pastures to bring greater transparency in its supply chain.
Until now Lewis Road Creamery had only been using Southern Pastures for its butter exports.
O’Rourke said international travel restrictions had also helped “level the playing field” for the Kiwi brand against its international competitors.
“We travelled off-shore every 18 months and now no one can travel so having a solidly digital business we were able to be quick in our response to customers and consumers digitally and launched a direct-to-consumer butter business online through the US,” she said.
O’Rourke said marketing had been an important tool for the business’s growth strategy.
“We've always tried to be open and authentic. What we've fiercely protected as we've grown is not outsourcing anything. Social media marketing has been an important tool to make sure what we're saying is us.”
Lewis Road Creamery had a strong social media presence, with more than 43,000 followers on Instagram, but O’Rourke said New Zealand businesses were far behind the US and China in terms of e-commerce and social media.
“It's never been cheaper or easier to have a direct chat conversation with consumers. That can be scary for some businesses because you have to be honest, fast and have conversations with your followers. But the truth is if you don't get to your consumers online fast you're going to really struggle.”
She said transparency, traceability and authentic story-telling were central to Lewis Road Creamery’s marketing strategy.
Protecting the company’s premium dairy brand meant the company had to also be strategic about how it participated in one of the world’s biggest shopping events, the Single’s Day 11:11 e-commerce event in China.
“We are getting involved but won't be heavily promoting the ‘best price ever’ messaging because we're trying to protect our value-add premium position in the market,” O’Rourke said.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>A block of New Zealand butter selling for about $10 in the United States shows that there is demand for products farmed more responsibly, says chairman and founder of Southern Pastures, Prem Maan.
Southern Pastures is an agricultural fund that owns 19 dairy farms in south Waikato and Canterbury and was founded on the principles of long-term thinking and regenerating farm land to leave it in a better state then when it was bought, Maan said.
The butter produced by Lewis Road Creamery, half owned by Southern Pastures, and exported to the US is made from milk from nine Southern Pastures farms in Canterbury. These farms meet the company’s own welfare and sustainability standards covering grass-fed, free-range, animal welfare, environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation criteria.
The butter is the most expensive grass-fed butter per pound (nearly 500 grams) sold nationally by Whole Foods in the US and is also sold in Australian supermarket chain Woolworths, he said.
The independently audited internal “10 star premium standards” for welfare and sustainability had been key to Southern Pastures’ success overseas with consumers looking for premium products, Maan said.
“People who care about the climate, the environment, health, and animal welfare.”
Southern Pastures was recognised as an ethical investor this week by The Responsible Investment Association Australasia, which for the last six years has produced a yearly report documenting the growth of the country’s responsible investment market.
It was the only agricultural fund recognised in the report.
"We are absolutely convinced that dairy farming should be a force for environmental, not just economic, good," Maan said.
Southern Pastures came into being 10 years ago and was founded by Maan, and three others including former All-Black captain Graham Mourie, with expectations about what ethical dairy farming could mean.
Mourie, who grew up on a dairy farm, in addition to his rugby career has farmed for most of his life and is involved in farm management planning at Southern Pastures.
Maan said that while Southern Pastures farms didn’t apply the regenerative agriculture label, they embraced many of its principles.
For example soil biology was a top priority. Southern Pastures stove for no tillage, while the ground was kept covered and deep-rooted pastures were developed.
The south Waikato farms, which supply Fonterra, had no earthworms when they were bought, so 350 cubic metres of worms were supplied. The fund was also responsible for helping to import dung beetles into New Zealand, Maan said.
Biodiversity was increased through retiring land, creating wetlands and actively planting natives. All the farms had permanent bee populations and there was also some forestry.
Maan said careful use of synthetic fertilisers, agricultural chemicals and antibiotics were all important to the way the farms were run, and it had stewardship policies to manage these.
The company was in the process of trialling biochar, a charcoal which retains nutrients in topsoil where they are available for crops.
It was also trialling the use of miscanthus on its Canterbury farms, a tall fast-growing grass that is efficient at putting carbon back into the soil, while also providing shelter belts. It can be harvested as food for cattle also.
“We want to produce carbon neutral products and eventually carbon [negative] products. We believe that our type of farming is the solution to climate change rather than the problem,” he said.
The company owns more than 6600 hectares of farmland including one organic farm and a support farm for growing stock feed. The organic farm was used to learn how to farm without antibiotics, Maan said.
The lessons learned were applied to the other farms.
“We now use less antibiotics on all our farms than what you’d be able to use under European organic standards,” he said.
The 10 star premium standards took a stance on human and animal welfare and sustainability, he said.
For example, the farms did not dock tails or allow any of its cattle to be exported live, he said.
Maan said he would like to see the Government put a stop to live exports.
“One of our core beliefs is that animals are sentient beings, and they have to be treated humanely. Live export is inhumane.”
While it had no plans to increase the number of farms it owned, the fund hoped to attract other farmers to adopt its standards programme, Maan said.
Investors in the fund included the Swedish government and several European institutional investors looking for long term value, he said.
Long-term thinking was the fund’s competitive advantage, with expectations of getting returns in 20, 30 or 40 years, he said.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>
Kiwi favourites Lewis Road Creamery have done it again, launching a product that celebrates the much-loved tradition of dunking gingernuts - and it has got biscuit-lovers' tastebuds tingling.
In supermarkets today, the Gingernuts Fresh Flavoured Milk is a limited-release collaboration with Griffin's, blending Lewis Road whole milk with Gingernuts, and promises "something a little spicy and delicious" according to a statement from Lewis Road.
The company promises that Kiwis will be able to find it in "most stores" nationwide.
Fans of the brand were quick to voice their approval, taking to social media to share their feelings.
"Goddamn it, my two weaknesses rolled into one," a fan wrote.
Another chimed with a relatable take on tucking into gingernuts without milk, writing: "Better then breaking 9 teeth eating one biscuit lol".
Controversially, some debated adding the flavoured milk to coffee or tea, while expats bemoaned its lack of availability overseas.
"Killing me. Please export to Aussie," one woman begged.
The release is the latest in a string of collaborations for Lewis Road, who have previously combined with Whittaker's chocolate and Pic's Peanut Butter.
2020 has also seen the company make big moves globally, after they signed a deal with American supermarket chain Whole Foods, said to be worth up to US$5 million ($8m) in its first year.
Whole Foods, owned by e-commerce giant Amazon, is now selling Lewis Road Creamery grass-fed butter in 270 of its stores in 37 states throughout the United States, following its debut in the market in 2018 through organic grocery chain Erewhon in California and supermarket Central Markets in Texas.
Lewis Road Creamery was said to have caught the attention of Whole Foods, and has since become the first New Zealand dairy company to be stocked nationwide by the speciality organic supermarket.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>A nationwide plan to put fresh milk dispensers and reusable glass bottles into grocery stores kicks off today, following calls from shoppers for milk brands to ditch plastic bottles.
Lewis Road Creamery launched the initiative after receiving multiple requests from shoppers asking for a return to glass.
"The plastic problem really worries our customers," Lewis Road Creamery founder and CEO Peter Cullinane said.
"Two years ago we switched to 100 per cent recycled plastic bottles but we've always wanted to do more, so this is another step in the right direction."
Auckland shopper Jenny Bramley said taking a glass bottle to fill at the grocery store was no different to taking a reusable bag.
"I got in touch with Lewis Road earlier this year letting them know my dream of being able to get milk in glass bottles. I've gone to a lot of effort in the past to buy milk in glass, including taking my own bottle to the farmgate. So it's great that finally there is a much more convenient option and to know I won't be adding to the plastic mountain," Bramley said.
The milk dispensers will initially be installed at Farro stores in Auckland before being rolled out nationwide in other premium grocery stores.
"We know that refillery stations work brilliantly at small farmers markets around the country, and we really want to see that same responsible approach at a more mass market, urban level," Cullinane said.
With around 23,000 tonnes of plastic milk bottles entering New Zealand's waste stream annually, Lewis Road said anything that can be done to reduce this amount of plastic waste was a positive thing.
The milk dispensers are supplied by New Zealand business Glass Bottle Milk & Co and customers can buy a one litre screw top glass bottle for filling from the dispenser located in-store.
"We are always looking for new ways to offer shoppers more sustainable shopping solutions and, like our friends at Lewis Road, we have received many requests from our customers for milk refill stations like these," Farro CEO Bryce Howard said.
"A trial of the milk dispenser in our Grey Lynn store has been really well received by our customers so we are looking forward to having more dispensers in more stores for more of our customers to access".
The reusable glass one litre bottles cost a one-off $4 and each milk refill of Lewis Road Creamery Organic Homogenised milk is $4 per litre.
Milk refill stations are currently available at Farro in Grey Lynn, Constellation Drive and Epsom with more stores soon to follow.
To view the original article, click here.
By FMCG Business.
Lewis Road Creamery’s 100% recyclable (rPET) milk bottle has been awarded Gold in the special Sustainability Category at the 2020 WorldStar Packaging Awards.
The Awards are run by the World Packaging Organisation to recognise companies for packaging innovation across six categories including food, beverage, labelling & decoration, health & personal care, household and packaging materials & components.
Lewis Road, in partnership with its rPET bottle producer PACT Group, took out top honours in the overall sustainability category, complementing the announcement of the brand’s Gold award in the international beverage category in December last year.
Taking out second place in the same category was Woolworths Australia for their Woolworths Bakery Plant Fibre Tray and in third place, JASA Packaging Solutions B.V.,Netherlands for the Bag-2-Paper™.
The award highlights the triumph of this innovation across all categories and the positive impact switching to rPET bottles has had on the environment, saving approximately 310 tonnes of new plastic being created each year.
Lewis Road was the first milk producer to sign the New Zealand Packaging Declaration, committing to 100% of its packaging being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025 or earlier,
Since October 2019, Lewis Road’s entire white milk, flavoured milk and cream range has been bottled in the award-winning packaging which is made entirely from recycled plastic and not only 100% recyclable, it is also accepted by every council recycling collection nationwide.
You can find more information about the rPET bottles here.
View the original article here.
]]>By Bonnie Flaws.
Boutique Kiwi dairy company Lewis Road Creamery has hit the shelves in United States in a deal worth up to US$5 million (NZ$8m) in its first year.
The company has been pursuing a slow push into the United Since for the last 18 months, first appearing in California's premium organic grocer chain Erewhon and specialty supermarket Central Markets in Texas. Sales took off, with the Lewis Road brand selling twice twice as fast as it did in New Zealand, founder Peter Cullinane said.
As a result the company caught the attention of Whole Foods Markets, a large US supermarket chain specialising in natural and organic food. The butter is now in 271 Whole Foods stores across 37 states.
Cullinane says the deal is proof of concept for an idea that he founded the creamery on: That New Zealand should be exporting finished branded products rather than commodities for the lowest possible price.
"The interest in all things grass-fed is extraordinary. US consumers are really savvy and they appreciate that there is a significant difference between grass-fed and grain-fed," he said.
The yellow colour of grass-fed butter is a selling point because it contrasts with the pale appearance of US domestic grain-fed butter, he said.
The other big selling point was having US GMO free certification, which Cullinane said is huge in America.
"We take it for granted here. The way US consumers think about it is it's the first step they apply to food before they ask if it's organic or anything else. If it's GMO free, it's like OK we can play."
The butter will be coming up against Irish grass-fed butter brand Kerry Gold, which is the number two selling butter in the US, Bloomberg reported in October last year.
But Cullinane says anything the Irish can do, "we can do better". Unlike in New Zealand, Irish herds are kept in barns over winter because of the colder climate.
Westland Milk Products also sells several thousand tonnes of butter under specific brands to the US worth tens of millions of dollars each year, chief executive Toni Brendish said.
She would not disclose the names of those brands.
The Lewis Road butter range will sell for US$6.99 for an 8oz pack, making it the most expensive grass-fed butter per pound being sold nationally by Whole Foods.
General manager Nicky O'Rourke said Lewis Road expected to export 400 metric tonnes of butter to the US this year and hoped to triple that every year by picking up new accounts.
The butter exported to the US is made from milk exclusively from nine Southern Pastures farms in Canterbury, that meet stringent 10 Star Premium Standards that cover grass-fed, free-range, animal welfare, environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation criteria.
Lewis Road first set its sights on the US market when Southern Pastures invested in the company in 2017 with a 25 per cent stake. Today Southern Pastures has a 50 per cent stake, while Cullinane remains the single biggest shareholder.
Offshore growth is projected at 550 per cent for the 2019-2020 year because of the Whole Foods deal.
"We were in 15 [US] stores in November 2018 and we're about to be in 350," O'Rourke said.
They are targeting another 550 per cent growth in 2021, she said.
The company also launched flavoured milks into China just before the Coronavirus broke out but will wait for things to stabilise before pushing further, Cullinane said.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>New Zealand dairy producer Lewis Road Creamery has eliminated 210 tonnes of fresh plastic from its packaging cycle in the first 12 months of trialling bottles made from 100% recycled plastic.
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]]>By Alice Neville.
Think back, for a moment, to October 2014. Exactly five years ago. What were you doing? Some occurrences of note for context: the National government had just returned to power for a third term. The ebola epidemic had reached America. Lorde had her first stadium concert tour of New Zealand. Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison for killing Reeva Steenkamp. Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ was dominating the charts. Alex Casey bid a fond farewell to retiring weatherman Jim Hickey on a brand-spanking-new website called The Spinoff.
Admit it: you know what you were doing back then. You were, in all probability, in the grips of a chocolate milk-fuelled frenzy. A dairy-driven mania. You were absolutely frothing over a sweet brown liquid in a plastic bottle.
That’s right – it has now been five years since Lewis Road Creamery’s chocolate milk first hit the shelves and the population of New Zealand (or the North Island, at least) officially lost its shit.
Until that point, the company was well known in posho artisan food circles, mostly for its butters, but hardly a household name. That was all to change when it teamed up with a company that was – good old Whittaker’s.
The first bottles of Lewis Road Creamery Fresh Chocolate Milk, made with Whittaker’s 5 roll creamy milk chocolate, appeared at the end of September, with samples sent out to media (these were the halcyon days before influencers were really a thing, so we food hacks did pretty well out of the PR campaigns) on Thursday the 25th. They were duly drunk and ‘grammed:
It was delicious, no doubt about that, but we could never have anticipated what was to come. The milk went on sale on Tuesday, 30 September, only at Moore Wilson’s in Wellington and selected Farro stores in Auckland. Initial production was 1000 litres a week, and all stores quickly sold out of both 750ml and 300ml bottles (which were priced at $6.49 and $3.69 respectively). Every day more arrived, and every day it disappeared in a flash.
The year before, the cronut craze had swept New York and, as Ben Fahy wrote on Stop Press at the time, scarcity can be a great strategy to intensify demand. Lewis Road Creamery founder Peter Cullinane, a former advertising bigwig, has always denied the company engineered the shortage deliberately, but hell, it makes you think. They spent just $20,000 on advertising – a pittance in ad terms – and there was not a single TV commercial.
It certainly seemed to work for the Lewis Road Creamery chocolate milk. Chelsea Winter said she would step over her aunt to get some (a claim that poses many questions, not least the nature of her aunt’s proximity to the ground at the time of said stepping over and how she got there).
The roads were clogged by milk fiends on wheels, pursuing their dairy prize like people possessed. Folk outside of Auckland and Wellington begged to know when it would make it to the regions.
Finally, on Wednesday, 8 October, the milk launched in selected New World and Countdown stores in the North Island, and shit got real. Production was soon at 24,000 litres a week, then 30,000 litres a week, then 31,000, and Lewis Road Creamery began posting daily updates of which stores were getting deliveries to pre-empt the increasingly desperate pleas. Queues were commonplace. Purchase limits were enforced. Bottles were nicked from trolleys. Security guards were put in place to monitor fridges.
The social media supplication became increasingly desperate, and Lewis Road Creamery struggled to keep up.
Somebody started a Facebook page of not very good LRCCM-related memes. Someone else got some very good nail art.
Some people, including famous musicians, gave up trying to get their hands on some and took the DIY approach.
While others, shockingly, turned to the black market, with bottles turning up on TradeMe for inflated prices. Counterfeit versions allegedly appeared in dairies, which Lewis Road Creamery promised to investigate, and schoolyards.
The madness continued, and, perhaps inevitably, the rest of the world began to take an interest in what those kooky Kiwis were up to this time. “There’s a chocolate milk shortage in New Zealand and people are going crazy”, was the Daily Mail headline. “New Zealand is running out of chocolate milk and people are going insane”, was Buzzfeed‘s take.
It was hard not to feel just a wee bit proud of our batshit little nation.
What happened next? Well, Lewis Road Creamery Fresh Chocolate Milk finally made it to the South Island in September 2015 – nearly a full year after it first hit shelves in the north. A second milk-processing facility at Lewis Road’s milk partner Green Valley Dairies, at Mangatawhiri in Waikato, had allowed production to increase, and at the same time the company released two new flavours – vanilla and coffee. You can now get LRC choc milk whenever you like, and a whole bunch of other flavours too. There are no queues, there are no frenzies – or at least any that I can find documented on social media.
So, readers, what can we learn from the Great Chocolate Milk Frenzy of 2015? Perhaps that 2015 was a simpler time, a purer time. Or perhaps, as one kind commenter on the Buzzfeed story suggested at the time, we’re a bunch of selfish morons. Who is to say.
View the original article here.
]]>By Albert Cho.
Renowned as one of New Zealand’s top dairy companies, Lewis Road Creamery is proving once again why it has a reputation as being the best, this time, with its new range of Super-Premium ice cream. Three years ago, Lewis Road launched what was at the time, recognised as the best ice cream on the market. However, according to the team at Lewis Road, a recent blind taste test showed that their ice creams were no longer the crème de la crème.
So, Lewis Road Creamery went back to the drawing board and returned with five new and improved flavours, reclaiming its (unofficial) title as the best ice cream in the country. Introducing the new line-up: Chocolate Truffle, Three Vanillas, Dark Chocolate Noir with Raspberry Ribonnette, Double Mint and Burnt Butter. Designed to be unbelievably smooth, the especially creamy consistency of these ice creams means that they can be effortlessly scooped from the moment they’re taken out the freezer (because no one has the patience to wait when they’re craving ice cream).
Each flavour boasts a full-bodied, decadent consistency, and a superbly smooth mouthfeel. This is due to the focus Lewis Road Creamery placed on reducing the air in each tub, which is what can create that unpleasant, icy texture in other ice creams. Thanks to the combination of high-quality ingredients and careful production processes, Lewis Road has managed to elevate its ice cream from premium to Super-Premium — and it’s taken the game to a whole new level.
Three Vanillas, for instance, is unlike any other vanilla ice cream we’ve ever tasted. Featuring a range of exotic vanilla extracts from Madagascan to Tongan, to Tahitian, this ice cream has a rich, deep flavour and proves that there is far more flavour potential in simple vanilla than most people might think.
Other new flavours include a creamy Chocolate Truffle swirled with thick chocolate ganache and offering the ultimate indulgence for chocolate lovers, and a Dark Chocolate Noir with Raspberry Ribonnette. This one is folded through with a gorgeously sweet and sour raspberry ripple to lend some freshness that cuts through the intensity of the dark chocolate.
Although every flavour in the new range is nothing short of divine, there’s something truly special about the Double Mint and the Burnt Butter. While Lewis Road’s original Mint & Dark Chocolate premium ice cream was renowned, when the public began to demand more of a hit of mint that’s exactly what Lewis Road delivered. Its new Double Mint is churned with a natural peppermint extract which is followed by a hint of spearmint, and when combined with shards of dark chocolate, offers a fresh, complex flavour that tingles the palate.
The Burnt Butter, on the other hand, is a one-of-a-kind that everybody simply must try. It resonates with a sweet caramel flavour, yet has so much more depth, more like a butterscotch toffee and it’s one you need to taste to genuinely understand its greatness.
Lewis Road Creamery’s Super-Premium range is available in select supermarkets now, and more widely from 23rd September. Click here for more information.
To view the original article, click here.
]]>Lewis Road Creamery has unveiled a new range of standard milk on sale in supermarkets sourced solely from Waikato jersey cows.
The move is the first time a standard milk product from a single breed has been released in New Zealand.
The company already produces organic jersey milk and the move to have a standard milk would be an affordable alternative for New Zealanders, co-founder Peter Cullinane said.
"Our customers want to know the provenance of their dairy, they want whole products that haven't been over-processed, and they want to be able to taste that difference," he said. "With a single-breed standard jersey milk we can do all those things, and at a more accessible price for consumers."
In standard dairy industry practice, milk producers mix the milk from various breeds of cow, break the combined product apart, then reassemble it using permeate to create a standardised protein content.
Lewis Road's processor, Green Valley Dairies (GVD) had been collecting milk from Chinese-owned Theland Farm Group's farm at Collins Rd, just south of Hamilton. The farm had a jersey herd whose milk was going into its general collection.
Cullinane approached the company and asked if it was interested in supplying them with jersey milk under the Lewis Road label, and it was. The first collection was made on May 28 in time to be processed and bottled for its launch on May 30.
While this farm was the first to supply the milk, Cullinane was also speaking to others including Auckland-based dairy corporate Southern Pastures, who have a sizeable jersey farm in southern Waikato. This would help give Lewis Road a consistent supply curve.
He also spoke to jersey breeders at the breed organisation's annual conference earlier this week.
"They're over the moon. We can add farms as demand racks up, but at this stage, Theland have an existing relationship with GVD and with us and Southern Pastures are an investor in Lewis Road and they are very keen for us to draw on their herd which we will and we'll go from there."
Lewis Road's other fresh milk range is sourced from organic farms and the jersey milk would not have the issues around milk price volatility that can occur on organic farms.
The milk's retail price is well below its organic pricing and slightly above the standard branded milk.
"I can see no reason why it shouldn't be New Zealand's favourite milk in due course and to be New Zealand's favourite milk it's going to have to be really good and priced reasonably," he said.
Cullinane said he loved the "dairy redemption" story of the Collins Rd farm. A former farm owned by the Crafar family, it was in a state of neglect when Theland bought it.
"It's gone from being one of the worst farms in the world to the investment that Theland has put in is extraordinary. We love the fact that this same farm is now producing the best jersey milk in the country."
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