Richmond bites at domestic market

Friday 5th April 2002

Meat exporting giant Richmond has made a characteristically bold move on the local market with a new range of branded meat packs.

The Bite Me range consists of low-fat beef burger patties and meat balls, pre-cooked and free-flow frozen in bright, cartoony packs to appeal to shoppers from the bottom of supermarket freezer chests.

A television and print marketing campaign for Bite Me has also started.

Richmond is preparing and packing the Bite Me products at its $14 million Foodtech plant at Takapau, which also bones out, trims and packs portion-controlled meats for export.

"We need to get the Bite Me range launched and established on the local market before going export with it," Richmond managing director John Loughlin said.

"If you can't succeed locally, where the supply lines are shorter and you know the players, then you are going to struggle internationally with branded products," he said.

Meat exporters traditionally have local wholesaling and sometimes retailing operations associated with export plants.

Among the four major exporting companies, Affco has the biggest local meat division, wholesaling to butchers and restaurants in the Auckland region.

A steady growth in Affco shareholding by fish and vegetables processor Talley's, of Nelson, has given rise to speculation of more local market, and non-meat, involvement in future.

In 1996 second-tier exporter Anzco Foods developed and promoted the Angel Bay range of cooked and packed beef products, made in Dunedin and available nationwide at the quality end of the local market.

Richmond is the first of the big four to go right through to retail on the local market with meat products.

It has expanded its Gourmet Meats mail order and restaurant supplying subsidiary, originally begun by the failed Fortex Group near Christchurch, into a New Zealand meat division under the control of general manager Jenny Myers.

Mr Loughlin said further products would be added to the Bite Me range.

"The Bite Me range matches Richmond's vision and philosophy of adding value on its journey to becoming an international food company."

The patties and meat balls take lower-value offcuts and trimmings and generate much better earnings, he said.

"So, instead of being a pricetaker by freezing and shipping undifferentiated lower priced items to manufacturers elsewhere in the world, we are capturing a premium for branded product."

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