Page 75 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

On the back of Egmont Honey’s Clover Honey launch in Australia, founder James Annabell speaks to Doris Prodanovic about the family business, the new facility and travelling by helicopter to reach Manuka flowers.
Sourcing liquid gold
EGMONT Honey may have 4000 beehives, but its beekeepers only have a six-week window to collect the entire, annual honey supply.
The family-owned company is based in the alpine region of the South Taranaki countryside, where Manuka flowers grow in remote and steep parts of the country. Egmont Honey founder James Annabell told Food & Drink Business the plants only flower for six weeks of the year.
“We use helicopters to reach the Manuka. We send in big beekeeping teams for this certain period of time who spend huge hours in the area.
“From there, the hives go to the extraction plant where we spin the honey from the frames and then it goes into drums and sent to the packing plant.”
Once the drums reach the New Plymouth facility, the honey is gently heated to liquid, so it is easily poured out of the drums before entering a cold creaming process.
“We have stainless steel vats where the honey is stirred for a period of time at a cold temperature. This changes the structure so you get a thicker, smoother and creamier texture. We have about eight or nine water-jacketed creaming tanks because it takes about 40 hours to cream a batch of honey, so it can be a bottleneck in the process depending on how long it takes.”
Egmont Honey opened its new facility in 2018, which features a semi-automated packing line, a sophisticated
auto-capper from the US and a filling system by New Zealand manufacture Hunter.
Annabell told F&DB, “The Hunter filling system is meant to be one of the best in the world especially for honey, as it’s a very viscous product. We can now pack up to 4500 kilograms of honey a day.”
Around 90 per cent of Egmont Honey’s production is in Manuka honey, with the remainder accounting for its other ranges, including its recently launched clover honey variety. Annabell says clover honey has only recently experienced a “boom period” but the price has now come back to a point that is now acceptable, for both supermarket buyers and consumers.
“It’s been really good having the clover honey back on shelf,” says Annabell. “Now it’s about re-educating consumers both in New Zealand and Australia, as well as stockists about the clover honey type.”
Egmont Honey today reaches 20 countries with its range of products, both under its own brand name and as private label home brands for large supermarkets around the world. Annabell says it has been
important to create a connection between the brand and the consumer by sharing the Egmont Honey story.
“Both domestically and overseas, we’re seen as an authentic brand. We’re a family-founded company – by myself and my father – and we’ve stayed true to the ethics of the industry on the outset.
“We talk a lot about our people and processes behind the brand to try and build empathy between our honey and the consumer.
“It can be about the beekeepers, the honey makers or one factory team members – it’s important that we do our storytelling by telling consumers about the people behind the brand.”
Egmont Honey launched its Creamy Clover and Liquid Clover Honeys under its Waimete Honey Co brand in early October, now additions to its existing premium portfolio of Manuka and raw honey available in Woolworths.
More product initiatives are expected to reach Australians in the new year as Annabell and the Egmont Honey team finalise a new packing and production line in New Zealand. ✷
NEW ZEALAND UPDATE
Egmont Honey beekeepers have a six-week window to collect honey from over 4000 beehives.
Egmont Honey’s new facility includes a semi-automated packing line and a New Zealand-designed filling system.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | November-December 2019 | Food&Drink business | 75