From Gap to Growth for Cheeky RTDs
New Zealand Food Innovation Network
A network of food & beverage production facilities and services enabling the development and scale up of new products
Meet budding booze barons Brendan Yielder and Olivier Despatis.
University of Otago classmates, their business started with a crude yet delicious concoction of tea bags, lemon juice, and vodka whipped up in their Dunedin scarfie flat.
But support from FoodSouth-Otago and the Product Development Research Centre at the University of Otago got the cheeky business off the ground.
Third-year commerce students, Brendan and Olivier noticed the popularity of iced tea and the growth of more health conscious RTDs.
In an inspired (and thirsty) moment they combined the two into hard iced tea.
Their Cheeky Hard Iced Tea business concept took out prizes for best business case and best pitch at entrepreneurship programme Audacious.
Looking for support to take the next step in their commercial journey they knocked on the door of FoodSouth-Otago.
Without a food science background, they needed help to understand how different ingredients interact, and how to create a recipe that could be scaled up.
A local beer festival became an unofficial test bed for their first 400 litre batch, giving the boys confidence to move into contract manufacturing.
By July 2021 they were producing 20,000 litres (60,000 cans) per month.
Today, sales are strong from 60+ retail stores.
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Brendan says, “One of the things we’ve learned is it’s great to have the idea, but sometimes you just need to be able to pull in the experts.”
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So, if you’ve a bright idea for a new food or beverage product, the NZ Food Innovation Network does exactly what it says on the can. We’re here to help you innovate.
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We help ambitious food businesses scale up and commercialise new products. Tap into a national network of open-access food and beverage production facilities.
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