 Nick's company, South Island Distributors, is one of New Zealand's leading
distributors of
“We're the people who track down the hard-to-find products”, says Nick. That can mean chartering a helicopter to procure wild mountain goat from Blenheim for a game food banquet or to airlift the very first oysters of the season from the deck of a fishing boat to the five star hotels of Auckland and Christchurch. The South Island Distributors range also includes aged beef, the finest salmon from the chilly waters of Stewart Island, cervena and plump corn fed poultry. |
Nick says New Zealand's restaurant and café
menus are becoming more and more adventurous.
“The development of the café scene has had a lot to do with it. Our chefs are trying for something different and working very hard at that,” he said. Nick entered the gourmet food business via a roundabout route. He previously worked in the computer industry but bought two take away food businesses as an investment, one of which was a fish shop. He started selling crayfish on a wholesale basis and one thing led to another. Today, South Island Distributors has 22 employees and distribution and warehouse facilities in Christchurch, Auckland and Queenstown. The company established a relationship with Scottish Pacific Business Finance last year to help sustain its rapid growth rate. “We had a vast debtors file that we needed to turn into cash to buy more product and get the company motoring,” said Nick. “If you're always behind the eight ball on cashflow, it's hard to get going and it's very time-consuming trying to keep everything in balance. I’d rather be working on introducing new products and the marketing side of the business.” |