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Building Christchurch company, Canterbury Biltong from its humble beginnings in a tiny garden shed to supplying in excess of 300 supermarkets, delis and tourist destinations in New Zealand has been a wild, scary and exhilarating ride for owners David and Nicole Stanley.
South African, David and Christchurch born, Nicole moved to New Zealand in 2002 from Durban, South Africa, where David was a radio journalist and she was running her own recruitment company.
18 months after landing in Christchurch David left his job at the Christchurch Press to work full time developing the brand of a product many New Zealanders knew little about.
“Looking back, I don’t know what we were thinking,” he says.
“We had just built a house and the only funds we had were a year's superannuation from my job.”
David had learnt to make biltong in South Africa and had been missing the delicacy. He retrieved his biltong dryer from storage and made a batch for himself and some friends.
It was the first step on the road towards Canterbury Biltong’s commercial factory at Ferrymead in Christchurch.
Weekends were spent selling and promoting at shows and markets around the country to gain exposure for the product and brand.
Made from export-grade, porterhouse or topside steak, Canterbury Biltong has a dark, black appearance and its looks contrast strongly with its delicious, almost addictive flavour.
A lot of people would look at it, pull faces, ask if it was bark or eel and shudder and walk away, he says.
People who had travelled and seen a bit of the world seemed to be less suspicious of new flavours and were eager to try it.
“Once people tasted it, they were genuinely amazed at the taste,” says David.
“I must have personally handed almost half a million samples of our product out at shows and markets during the past four years.
“Gradually we began to get some traction with our brand and built it slowly with mail orders and a small number of supermarkets and deli’s.”
David remembers the feeling of having their products accepted by their first supermarket, Fresh Choice Merivale in Christchurch.
“I was at work and they phoned me there to say they loved the samples and wanted to stock it.”
It was a turning point and the couple realised they now had a brand and a viable business to develop.
Still working at The Press at that stage, David would get up at 3.30pm on the days he was making biltong and just make it to work on time at 8.30.
Evenings would be spent packing or working on what kind of packaging or point of sale to use at markets.
Everything we did, we did by trial and error. When I sunk $4000 into a vacuum packing machine, I knew there was no turning back.
The couple was building a house at this stage and decided to convert the garage into a registered food-premises and save on overheads while they built the business.
They were scary times as David and Nicole struggled with a heavy mortgage and the growing business chewed up every cent it generated.
“I would lie awake at night with knots in my stomach wondering how to pay all the bills.
“When you work for someone, you take your paycheck for granted, but with your own business it’s all up to you.”
At that stage of the business the bank that held their home mortgage was not interested in lending any money to Canterbury Biltong.
David went shopping and transferred the home loan across to another bank provided it gave Canterbury Biltong a loan.
“We would have gone under without that loan, he says.
“We were growing at more than a 100% and couldn’t sustain it without some capital.”
Early last year the business moved from the couple’s Heathcote property to its Ferrymead headquarters.
The business has a factory shop, but most products are wholesaled to retail customers throughout New Zealand.
Canterbury Biltong’s air-dried beef products are now stocked at all major supermarkets (ask at the service deli), in specialist delicatessens, outdoor shops, bars, cheese shops and at the larger ski-fields in New Zealand.
Used as a snack, on a cheese board or antipasto platter, or with a beer or wine, Canterbury Biltong is ideal for tramping or mountaineering expeditions or as a healthy treat in a child’s lunchbox, says Nicole.
In charge of marketing, she says the hard work is starting to pay off.
There is definite recognition of our brand now and the people who don’t know what biltong is are now in the minority rather than the majority, she says.
“At the Wild Foods Festival in 2003, they mistakenly had us on the programme as selling Bulls Balls. People believed this and were paying a dollar a piece to sample them.
“Not so many people would buy that these days,” says Nicole.
Starting a business and developing a brand has introduced us to some amazing people in New Zealand, says David.
There are so many people who are willing to help if you are prepared to listen. Who will go out of their way to give you a leg up.
You take lots of hits along the way, but they are definitely outnumbered by the high-points and the benefits of being in charge of your own business and lifestyle, he says.
It’s a great feeling getting into a supermarket chain or a high-profile outlet, says Nicole.
“It is an even better feeling when a six-year old child drags his or her mum over to our stand at Lyttleton Farmers Market on a Saturday morning and begs her to buy our biltong.
That’s when I know we are winning in our goal to take Canterbury Biltong to the world."
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