Working together for taste
Gourmet yogurt brand The Collective is spreading the word. Suzanne Christiansen reports.
The Collective yogurt brand is gaining traction in both New Zealand and the UK. Amelia Harvey, one of the founders of the Epicurean Dairy, helped bring The Collective brand to British shores, along with Mike Hodgson. Here, she tells Dairy Industries International how they are growing the business.
Q. What led to the development of the brand in the first place in the UK?
Mike and I originally worked together at Gü Puds, where he was managing director and I was the commercial director. When the business was sold to Noble Foods, we thought we’d like continuing to work together, and so we started identifying gaps in the market that were crying out for new innovation. At the same time, Angus Allan and Ofer Shenhav, who founded The Collective in New Zealand, had had a great launch there in 2009. They thought the product they’d developed would bring something really new and exciting to the UK.
When we first tried the gourmet yogurts and saw the branded products, we were bowled over, so it all fitted together. We formed a joint venture with Ofer and Angus and started the business in 2011.
Even though the UK yogurt market is heavily dominated by big brands, we truly thought (and still do) that our brand offers some fun, exciting, tasty innovation that’s like no other. We’ve had a fantastic response from consumers, and we continue to bring innovative flavours that haven’t been seen before in yogurts, like raspberry and amaretto, and spiced pumpkin, which was out for Halloween.
Q. What has been the most popular flavour? Where do you get the ideas?
Our passionfruit flavour has been the most popular since day one – its tropical taste is a real blast of summer and it’s incredibly moreish. We’re very lucky in having businesses on both sides of the world, so we’re able to draw from numerous cultures and trends. Sometimes we’ll launch a yogurt that’s launched in New Zealand, such as Russian fudge, and other times they’ll launch a flavour that we developed, such as raspberry and amaretto. Fiona, our head of development, has her finger on the pulse on trends and is taking inspiration from restaurants and cooking books, as well as whipping up all sorts of flavour combinations in her kitchen.
Q. You’ve moved into breakfast pouches in New Zealand. How have they been selling?
The breakfast pouches have just launched in New Zealand and are selling well – they’re a very new way of eating breakfast on the go, with no spoon and no mess. We’re continually evaluating opportunities for products so there may be more New Zealand products coming to the UK soon.
Q. What trends do you see in yogurts in the UK?
The big trend at the moment, which is definitely a long term issue, is sugar. It’s really altered the way consumers look at yogurt, as they’ve been educated about sugar content in even diet products.
We have taken big steps within our business to address this trend, and from this month our yogurts will contain 15 per cent less sugar. We haven’t replaced it with any sweeteners. Instead, we are just taking down the sweetness over time and we’ll continue to do so.
Consumers have been buying more heavily into natural yogurts so they can mix their own fruits/honey into it. In response to this trend, we launched Straight Up earlier this year, which is a beautiful glossy, thick natural yogurt with a sharper taste than most natural yogurts. We’ve had a great response from consumers on the texture of Straight Up.
Q. What do you think is the biggest issue facing yogurt makers in the UK and why?
Definitely sugar. The dynamics of the UK grocery industry are also extremely challenging, and the rise of the discounters and the changes in consumer’s shopping habits since the recession started, has put the grocery market into decline for the first time since records began.
We need to continue bringing value added innovation to the retailers, to excite consumers and to trade them up. In addition, the tough trading environment in the UK is due to the intensely competitive market place for retailers and suppliers.
Q. What has been your biggest achievement and challenge so far?
We’re now heading into our fourth year in business; so we don’t take much time to stand back and reflect, but we feel incredibly grateful for the support from the UK retailers in allowing us build a business. We have a great platform to build a much bigger business going forward. This year has probably been the toughest we’ve known, with the challenges facing the grocery industry. We hope that by being small and nimble, we can help retailers by being a business that’s easy to deal with and that responds to their needs with value adding, innovative products.
