Is a successful ‘hyper-local’ food system really possible? Yes… Minjat!

A few weeks ago I sat in an Auckland apartment speaking over the phone with a French man in Toulouse. I spoke zero French, and I don’t think the man enjoyed speaking English (especially with a strange Kiwi, on a poor connection, who had cold-called him to ask for a visit). However, by the end of the conversation, I was 70% sure I’d convinced him to let me tour his business.

One month later I hopped from a bus on the other side of the world and strolled across to the MINJAT! Headquarters, where the founder, a smiling David Pages greeted me at the entrance.

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The supermarket scene in France shares similarities with New Zealand, consisting of a few large and consolidated chains that dominate the landscape, leading to high retailer profits, lower diversification of produce, higher prices for consumers, and reduced sharing of value across long and complicated supply networks.

In New Zealand I was part of the Mana Kai Initiative, where leaders from across the sector discussed concepts of hyper-local food systems that could benefit farmers, growers, community, and consumers. Little did I know back then that my new city would be home to a living and thriving example of just that.

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David proceeded to give me a full tour and explanation of the business, sharing the challenges and opportunities, his learnings so far, and future ambitions. I’d like to share this fascinating but simple system as an inspiration for what can be achieved – so who, how, what, where and why does this work?

The MINJAT! system ?

Minjat is an integrated supermarket, butcher, cheesery, bakery, online grocer, and restaurant, all located on the same premises.

The supermarket also includes fresh fruit and vegetables, locally processed and packaged food products, a refillery, ready-to-eat meals, and of course (being French) – a great selection of local wines.

David explained that one of the first priorities to making the system work was maximising convenience and ensuring a shopper can meet all of their grocery needs from the one store. This avoids a trap that many local-food markets often fall into - becoming a niche provider where customers just top-up alongside their regular supermarket shop.

Who is included in a ‘hyper-local’ food system?

A minimum of 90% of the products sold at Minjat during any given season are procured from 400 suppliers all within a 150km radius of the store.

The system connects these producers with local customers and consumers, while providing direct and indirect employment opportunities for those across the community.

How do farmers, growers and foodies’ benefit?

A short supply chain with strong vertical integration means that Minjat is almost always able to pay higher prices to its producers than the larger chains. Not only this, producers are paid within one week of supplying the business (compared with up to two-months at the large chains).

The business also procures processed products from artisan producers who are within the 150km radius, providing a pathway to market that is at an appropriate scale for small businesses.

And consumers? With such a short value-chain, Minjat not only offers higher prices to producers, but lower prices to customers – in a business model that thrives on efficiency rather than scale to benefit all of those involved.

?What about Food Waste and imbalances of local supply/demand?

Most of the food offered in Minjat follows the traditional seasonal production, with fresh fruit and veggies changing from season to season. Pickling, fermenting, freezing and other processing helps to extend the seasons of most ingredients to be used across the year.

But the real key is the dynamic on-site restaurant which caters to anywhere from 50-100 people per day, using fresh produce and anything in oversupply, ensuring the entire store has less than 1% food wastage.

Where does the community engage with the business?

Minjat hosts special events such as creating 85 Irish Stews for St Patricks day with only local ingredients, or hosting a local juice pressing event where children and community can engage in the production of the season's apple juice (which always sells out within a few months).

The business provides employment to over 30 people from part-time students to full-time executives, giving strong job opportunities to local members of the community.

Minjat also hosts ‘producer’ days where farmers, growers and customers get to interact, ask questions, share recipes and engage at an interpersonal level to create a circular feedback loop and relationship at the ends of the supply chain.

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Why is there only one store? If it’s so successful – shouldn’t it be everywhere?

David and his team have been growing the business from a concept six years ago, to the agile and integrated partnership business it is today.

The system works, but it isn’t easy. Some of the key bottlenecks or hurdles to scaling the model include:

• Executive/Leadership knowledge and relationships in grocery, food processing, and food production.
• Access to skills and talent for all the critical roles within the business.
• A region with diverse production systems located within close proximity.

However, there are several locations which can tick these boxes in regions across France, New Zealand, and many other countries of the world.

The next steps for David and his team are to scale this business model and its proven success within the region, to adjacent areas in the South of France, and then potentially across international borders in the future.

The intention isn’t to scale a centralised business and create yet another supermarket chain, but to empower the implementation of individual and independent successful systems each with its local adjustments for different communities. This way future Minjat stores can still benefit from the experience gained, but also retain an authentic hyper-local approach.

As I ate my Minjat restaurant meal, slurped my handmade smoothie, and peered at my grocery purchases for the rest of the week, I realised that the most important part of this story I’d just heard was that the example is real, and it works, so I decided I better write about it to let you know too.

You can find out more about the MINJAT business on its LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Website (but the monolingual readers may need to use your browser’s translator like I do)