Newspaper Article 2011 – From dessert stall to export

From dessert stall to export

Retirement not an option for Hawke’s Bay’s queen of the sweets

By Patrick O’Sullivan
Business Editor

Eleven years ago, at age 63, Trish Gibson started her gourmet desserts at the brand new Hawke’s Bay Farmers Market in Hastings.

She made her treats in her Crownthorpe farm kitchen, using a Kenwood mixer.

Country Culinaire’s Handmade Pavlova Roulades, Christmas and Sticky Date Puddings quickly became popular, forcing Trish to lease a commercial premises in Frimley to keep up with the demand.

She says she has no inclination to retire.

“I can’t just play bridge and garden and do those sorts of things – I want a challenge,” she said.

The timing was bad for her luxury products. “The recession hit me in 2007-08 and I thought I may not last another year. I had to decide if I would carry on or close up shop.

“I decided I wasn’t going to give it away because I knew I had a good product, I had to just hang in there. I decided I had to look for a bigger place because I couldn’t do anything more there.”

After three years of drought, her husband Barrie decided to sell their Angus beef farm and invest in Trish’s pavlovas.

“I wanted a home-made product you could get in a supermarket – all natural,” she said.

Their first supermarket success was Hastings City New World, where the manager liked the sample. From there they travelled the country, cold calling on privately owned Foodstuffs supermarkets and starting countless addictions by giving away in-store samples.

The rejection that can come with cold calling was hard work. “Sometimes I’d say, I can’t do it, I hadn’t even asked, but I got cold feet,”

After doing the hard yards to get their pavlovas into the country’s supermarkets freezers, Australia came easy.

In January, the phone rang from two holidaying food distributors from Melbourne. “They said they had tried my pavs in Wellington and asked if they could come and see me.”

The second container load is due to leave soon.

She said they were selling well, “There is nothing else like it over there.”

With pavlovas only using egg whites, the best use of egg yolks was an ongoing dilemma. Traditional ice cream was the obvious answer, so she bounced the idea off local supermarket owners.

“They said it would have to be good, have to be different and have to have different flavours.”

They do. The new range includes Orange and Cointreau, Liquorice and Black, and Chocolate and Chilli. Missing the convenience of ice cream slices, she went for the unique tube packaging, which allows the ice cream to be unrolled, sliced into perfect rounds and repacked. “It has really taken off,” she said.

She has not forgotten her homemade aspirations.

“Even with this expansion, we still use only the freshest of ingredients and we don’t use preservatives.”

She has stayed loyal to the Farmers Market ethos.

“I’ll only buy Hawke’s Bay products. Even my hazelnuts come from Waipukurau.”

The company has a staff of eight – soon to be 10 – and husband Barrie is part of the team.

“We needed a man around the place to fix and make things.”

She said she wished she had started the business sooner.

“There is so much potential, so much I want to do.”

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Photo caption – SWEET SUCCESS: Trish Gibson started her business at the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Market and now sells her dessert treats to Australia by the container load.   PHOTO/DUNCAN BROWN HBT114297-01