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Mahurangi Oysters owner Andrew Hay and daughter Lauren selling their soup at Fieldays last year.
A number of Mahurangi business are heading to Fieldays with innovative, locally developed products in the hope of getting national and international exposure.
Matakana-based businessman Maarten Bubbert founded farm-gate manufacturer and distributor, Stronghold Trading, six years ago and will have a display at Fieldays next month.
He says the business draws on the experience he gained running toy stores in his homeland, Holland. He started the toy business when he was 18 and started importing Nintendo computer games and went on to manufacture computer game accessories by outsourcing production to China.
He says the relationship he had built with Chinese manufacturers has been the basis for Stronghold, which manufactures gates in China.
“I have no background in farming, but I’m always on the look out for things that can be done smarter,” Mr Bubbert says. “I found all the gates in New Zealand were too highly priced, so, using my experience, I started producing the gates using factories in China. We don’t buy the gates from China – we design the gates here, they are all produced to our high standard, but by outsourcing the manufacturing it’s much cheaper.”
Mr Bubbert looked to base the company in Warkworth, but found the high price of industrial land made it unfeasible. Stronghold now has a 7000m2 site in Tirau, where he says industrial land is a quarter of the price.
This year he has been on the field days circuit around the country, from Gore to Dargaville.
“Our turnover at the smaller fieldays has tripled from last year. At the event in Gore we sold as much each day as we did at Mystery Creek last year.”
Mahurangi Oysters is heading to Fieldays for the second year in a row, to showcase its oyster soup in the Kiwi’s Best Kitchen exhibition area.
“It was really successful last year,” co-owner Lisa Hay says.
Lisa started developing the soup about three years ago. Last year, she received a $2500 grant from Government research and development arm, Callaghan Innovation, and has been producing the soup at the FoodBowl in Auckland – a commercial kitchen to help businesses develop products.
The packaged soup is now available at specialty supermarkets in Auckland and Snells Beach Fruit & Vege and Warkworth Butchery.
She says the soup is a great way to make the most of oysters which have imperfections.
Warkworth resident Sherman Smith will be heading to Fieldays to put on a display of kitset sheds and buildings with his business Outpost Buildings.
Sherman started the business with his brother in Timaru about eight years ago. He moved to Mahurangi in 2012 to make the most of the burgeoning lifestyle market in the area. The company now produces over 80 designs of kitset barns, sheds, garages, chicken coops, and even small houses.
The business is based in Silverdale, but will be opening a display site on Matakana Road, opposite Ascension Wine Estate, this month.
He says Fieldays is an important event to boost the profile of rural businesses.
“We think it’s going to be big for us,” Sherman says. “We’ve had so many requests from customers asking us to go that we think it’s a must.”
