How Kiwi plant-based food startup is gaining market share by focusing on meat reducers.

Speaker 1: 0:00

And welcome to this episode of the Unnoticed Entrepreneur. Today, we're going to meet an old friend from Beijing who's living in what could well be paradise Waikiki Island in New Zealand. Welcome to Jade Grey. That's G-R-A-Y who is the founder of a company called Off-Peace Provisions. Jade, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Jim, great to chat.

Speaker 1: 0:23

Well, it's so good to see you. I mean, you and I knew each other in Beijing. You built gung-ho pizzas there and then you sold that to the team in Beijing, but you'd built a thriving business there. Then you moved back to New Zealand in 2019, and so quickly you've built a business that's already pioneering in the meat alternative food business, and so I'd love to talk to you about how you're really changing the whole category, because you're building beef jerky without the beef Jade. So tell us about Off-Peace Provisions and what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 0:56

Yeah, so Off-Peace Provisions. We're a food technology company that's looking to make impact through the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and, in particular, animal livestock. So a solution to that challenge in New Zealand about 50% of greenhouse gas emissions come from livestock is to get rid of the cow. As simple as that. And the way we're doing that is through some pretty smart food tech which takes the humble pea and turns it into a pretty healthy and appetizing snack, in our case, a bunch of what we call alternative meat snacks. So think of beef jerky, pork crackling or what you may call up in UK I think you call them pork scratchings, in America pork rinds. We've got beer sticks and a bunch of alternative snacks which we're selling through New Zealand, australia and the US.

Speaker 1: 2:01

I love this on so many levels. Jade, and you're a pioneer in Beijing Tell us a little bit about the origins of Off-Peace and then later on, you're going to tell us about how you've been crossing the chasm, because building a new business is hard enough, but you're building it in a whole new category as well, in terms of these plant-based meat alternatives. So tell us a little bit about the genesis of Off-Peace.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Well, it goes back to 1996 when I first moved to China. My job there was running a cattle feedlot operation up in Northern China, right out in the back sticks of Gondei, which is Northeast China. And after running that I went into meat processing with OSI and McDonald's and Grand Butcheries for Costco and I was right in the meat space. But I lost yeah, just lost passion, interest in the sector. I got to see under the hood and I wasn't that inspired, so got out of the industry, got into restaurants, built that out for the best part of 20 years, jim, as you know and you're a frequent guest at one of my pizza chains- yeah, wonderful. Gang Ho Peeters. They were yep still going strong in Beijing. But during that time, near the end of the venture in about 2016, we really got on the whole sustainability impact journey and that was in China, was quite pioneering and we were actually the first B Corp certified food and beverage company in China and the third B Corp in China full stop. So it was definitely kind of pioneering in that regards of impact. But during that journey we really analyzed our carbon footprint and the big, I guess, epiphany was that animal products just had such a larger footprint than plant based in real terms and we're talking, you know, eight to 10 times larger footprint for the same equivalent of nutrition. So that was really the epiphany for me. And then we came across plant based meats and plant based dairy and that was what just opened my mind up, this whole new world of Wow, okay, this can be a really viable solution without having to sacrifice on the eating experience. So when we started business move back to New Zealand. Looking at New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions being livestock, we said, hey, let's attack that, let's get rid of the cow and use P, and we've used P protein and some very smart food technology to mimic effectively meat.

Speaker 1: 4:39

I think it's fantastic you used off-piece provisions. Is that because of your original fascination with skiing Jade? How did the name come about? Yep?

Speaker 2: 4:48

it's definitely part of it. Well, when I came back, I've always loved the outdoors gym and I was looking at the next chapter and how do I bring outdoors back into my life, but also looking at the whole plant-based meat space and saying how the hell do these two kind of get connected? And then I stumbled across the whole ambient shelf life. You know shelf stable products which don't require the cool chain. And when you head out to the mountains backpacking trails, cycling, skiing, you name it Obviously people pack their provisions and they put them in the backpack. You can't go to the local convenience store. So all of that food technology is built around 18 months shelf life, which is a real point of difference compared to a lot of the other products in the market. So, yeah, that was the, I guess, the marriage of the two. And now I get to go skiing and do a film shoot and apparently it's part of the work.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Well, you've always been brilliant at combining your business with your lifestyle, as you did in Beijing, and now you're doing down there in Livia and White Hickey, which is just such an amazing place just off Auckland, I think, isn't it. Now tell us a little bit about how you're building the business, because you know this shows about how entrepreneurs are building your business as much as the business they're building. So, chad, building any business is tough. You've done it in China, now you do it in New Zealand. What are some of the challenges that you're facing and that you're dealing with, and how you're overcoming those?

Speaker 2: 6:14

Yeah, I think every venture has its own challenges and you can be experienced at entrepreneurship, but each venture poses so many new challenges that you've never encountered. For me, actually, it was coming back to New Zealand. There's a kind of a reverse culture shock spending 20 years up in China and then having to set up teams and investors and navigating the landscape, you know, regulatory and culturally in New Zealand. So it was definitely the first kind of awakening is like okay, this is a new game again, so time to learn. Covid, obviously, is a big kicker. We, you know, about eight weeks before we're going to market, there's a lockdown in New Zealand for six weeks and that completely threw out you know, production, free market, launch, branding, you name it. So I think that crisis management and I had gone through SARS in China and I lost a business during SARS in 2003. So I did lean on that experience and the experience I learned there is you know, during crisis you need to make decisions based on imperfect information and you can't wait to get all the information you've really got to. If you wait, you pretty much die. So I took the front foot during COVID and we just plowed ahead, obviously cautiously, but we didn't hold back. We didn't wait, we just got on with business as usual and found a way. So, yeah, I think that was definitely one of the bigger challenges recently. And then food technology. You know it's quite a new space for me. I came out of the marketing background food, but not so much through technology and working with universities. You know I'm surrounded by people with PhDs and you know more degrees and I can bloody pronounce, but it's so fascinating being with these highly intellectual people and challenging them. You know, from an entrepreneur's point of view, from a marketing point of view, from a brand awareness point of view, not just around the science. And so I think that marriage of having a consumer centric design process, which is where I come in, and then having very much a food technology science approach, which is where the science team come in, it really creates that, that friction you need to come up with great innovation.

Speaker 1: 8:27

So, yeah, so, looking at the product packaging, just to touch on that, you can talk about marketing, although this is plant-based, you've got pictures of cows on the front. Do you want to just tell us a little bit about the design philosophy and strategy you take of that? Because Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 8:45

It's probably the most contentious part of our brand. Jim's well picked up A couple of things. One, when you're designing packaging, the packaging's really got to work on the shelf. You can't rely on other marketing. When you've got a small budget and you're dealing across hundreds of stores, you need to have the packaging doing the heavy lifting. So catching people's attention is key. We design not because it looks great. It needs to look great compared to your competition. So you've got to mock up packaging and then put it on the shelf and look how does it look on the shelf, not on the computer screen. One thing we noticed is that at Target Market actually a meat reduces. They're not vegans, they're not plant-based, they're people who eat meat, who are trying to eat less meat. So when they walk down the jerky aisle they don't want to see packages of peas, they want to get the attention triggered by a new product offering. They look at it and then it says plant-based and big font. So we're not trying to fool anybody, but we get their attention when they're looking for their meat jerky and then they're like ah, actually I wouldn't mind trying that because I'm trying to cut back on my red meat. So that was a key part of that. I think. The second thing is and I learned that from Ronnie Ebertuaz Whilst it seems socially acceptable to celebrate the slaughter of pretty sentient beings, we actually like to celebrate the lives we've saved. So we don't see anything wrong with putting up the animals that we're actually trying to somewhat avoid slaughter but at the same time offer an eye-catching packaging for a consumer.

Speaker 1: 10:21

Nice and you've got the sort of magic roundabout. People remember this in the UK Ermin Trude, the cow is actually eating a flower, so it's got a little bit. I was going to say tongue-in-cheek but flower-in-cheek for the cow as well Jade. What about distribution then? As well for the product, Because you launch it from Oaxaca Island, which is a tiny island. You're going global. You've got now over 700 locations in New Zealand. You've launched in Australia. You're going to the USA on Amazon. How have you managed to get the distribution?

Speaker 2: 10:58

I think it's about having a really clear marketing strategy and where a consumer sits, where do they shop, where do they hang out. That's actually the harder part. Once you identify that, then the distribution and our approach becomes quite simple. You understand who operates in those areas, in those channels, in those sectors, but really identifying who needs your product, not who wants it I think that's where we see some brands fall down. They're trying to target everything for everyone. We're saying who actually needs it and who would miss it if they don't have it in their life. We identified the outdoor market and also the convenient, what we call conscious consumer market. Once we identify that, what we call a brand persona or the avatar, we just then understand their lifestyle, where they hang out and then make the contacts. What you'll find is those category managers of those stores who are dealing with that consumer. They get the story straight away. If you start knocking on doors and you think you're trying to chase these big chains and it's just not who your niche is right now, you don't get much love.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Jay, that's a really good insight as well. To some degree niching down. Have you been doing much social media or has it been word of mouth? What's been the way that the brand has grown? I think?

Speaker 2: 12:22

you've got to cut through the noise. The only way you're going to cut through is leaning into your strengths. You can't try to emulate somebody's strengths if you don't have. It is my approach. You can neutralize your weaknesses, but to really lean into your superpowers and in the day, storytelling. There's a thousand ways to tell a story through dance, through music, through color, through oration. There's different ways. You've got to work out what is your superpower of storytelling. For me it's actually mainstream media PR. I've just honed that over the years. I think in China you're forced to talk to a lot of PR. Back in the day Everybody from Wall Street Journal to BBC would call you about some story about China and the like. You got pretty good at that game. I missed the whole social media thing. I'm an exer who was never good at computers in general. For me it's mainstream. The thing I picked up on that was really about that story which has legitimacy, and that mainstream media wants some legitimacy, whether it's your reputation, whether it's the venture, whether it's your backers, whatever. What I clicked on in New Zealand was the legitimacy of having government funding in our grants. We got a lot of research grants by getting that silver approval from Ministry of Primary Industries, through Callahan Innovation Ministry of Business Enterprise, you get those ticks from the government and then the mainstream media felt safe to bring you on and really push you because you've already been somewhat screened and certified. That's something I leaned into early and leveraged that to get that PR.

Speaker 1: 14:16

That's really, really interesting because on your website you don't have lots of social media tags. It looks at Instagram and TikTok actually are not Facebook or not Twitter and and all these other. So that's really interesting. You've been able to build distribution In to some degree a conventional way but with an unconventional product Jade. Fascinating how you've done that.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Yeah, I think it was because it's unconventional that they there's a story there for them. But then for them to know you're not some crackpot, they wanted to see that you'd really had some, you know some sign off, so different. It's not to say we're not doing social media Absolutely, but I think it's more around community building and for us that takes time and we're, you know, we appreciate to get we've got really high engagement with their community. We're not about just numbers or about engagement and that takes a long time but to get that initial cut through. Mainstream mainstream media still has a lot of power, and especially for our target market, which actually was generation X and baby boomers, who are the key meat reducers. That's still where they get the majority of their, of their news and information.

Speaker 1: 15:22

Yeah, that's the credible New sources and it's still for mode. Well, you and I the same generation, I said, but I'm better hold of that, closer to boomer than X right at my level, jade, what about overcoming, you know, the Kazim? I love to talk about how you get across to the other side From a marketing point of view playing you, doing that but also what about aspects of, for example, like talent, finding the people to come and work with you, especially when you are a Startup. You're doing what some might consider to be an oxymoron beef jerky without the beef so kind of hard sell there. How have you overcome that issue?

Speaker 2: 16:00

Yeah, I think it off piece to mean in regards to talent, and everybody talks about talent being the biggest asset, but I just see so many people who don't actually walk or talk on that and it takes time. You know, this is about building trust. It's about building relationships and that takes time, like any relationship. So, you know, I definitely call myself the chief recruitment officer For the first two years in your startup Maybe on my name card at CEO or founder, but that's not how I think it's about recruitment and recruiting stakeholders and, in particular, employees. So you know, every day you're selling the dream and I don't care if you've sold it, if you've signed the contract. That means nothing tomorrow. You know you've got to keep selling the dream and getting that engagement and that, again, it's about time. It's about understanding what their aspirations are and Aligning that and trying to learn to link how their aspirations time with your aspirations. So we spend a lot of time around alignment and I think the other thing around that is, you know, identifying the skills you don't have early in the piece, because as an entrepreneur, you need to obviously wear multiple hats and I'm prefer wearing hats that I feel confident in than trying to wear hats that I'm not confident in. So I, you know, do the organizational chart. If you look at the emeth, for example, you know talks about building out the chart right from day one and then putting yourself in every seat but slowly taking yourself out of those seats, and I definitely take that approach.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Well and, jade, you also did that very well in China and using Vern Harnes is scaling up and doing those workshops and so on. You really Empowered your team really amazingly well, jade, with the off-beast provisions From a marketing point of view. Is there anything that you felt you've done? I know it's only been a short amount of time. You had great success, but anything you feel you've done that really didn't yield the results that you'd suggest. People don't. You know, don't try at home.

Speaker 2: 18:02

Yeah, I mean, to be honest, we, we tend to fail fast and just move on. So I don't spend a lot of time doing all top seas. And you know, if is I definitely taking approach of throw ten things at the wall, you know two are gonna stick. Don't ask why the eight didn't just double down the two that did. And so I don't think actually and I'd like to give you a more concise answer, jim but I think that to me, is more about it. It's just just moving on. Don't don't do all the mistakes, don't do all what didn't work and it may have worked, it may work tomorrow, may have worked yesterday, just didn't work today. It doesn't mean that the planning was wrong or execution was off. Sometimes the things just don't. They just don't align and you just got to move on. And so I tell my team, like you know, let's celebrate the failures, move on. You know, if you're saying to take out of it, absolutely, but let's not dissect it and and look for blame or accountability. Or you know, if anything, the end of the day it sticks with me. I'm a marketing guy and if we got the marketing wrong, well, it's on me.

Speaker 1: 19:04

No, and I love that idea that you don't take it personally, jade. I think that shows a great deal of self-confidence, actually as well, that you can move on so quickly from failures. Well, and that's why you're so successful across so many different categories in so many different countries as well. Jade, you've also raised money. With just a sort of one quick question You've raised money. Can you give advice on how you raise the money? Because you're in a niche category, a growing category, but you're in a location not so close to big markets. How did you overcome that story to investors?

Speaker 2: 19:43

I think the key thing is why you got skin in the game. They need to see that. Whether it's time or money, they need to see you've definitely got skin in the game at start. So I started to venture with my own funds. It wasn't we're not talking huge amounts of money, but it's enough to get traction, get start the journey of getting a prototype. The other thing is over the years I've always kept in touch with mentors and people who've come across on the journey and who I was inspired by. I just keep them up to date with my story. There's kind of that adage don't fall at Buddha's feet in time of need. So I'd always keep in touch with these people and I generally enjoyed being in touch with them. They'd always say, hey, if you've got a venture, look me up. That was fine, Some of them literally 10 to 10 years later. I kept in touch and when it did come about, I started firing a few emails saying hey, I've got something brewing, Are you interested? The response was I think I literally approached four people and three came on as pre-seed. I got the funding. We raised our first one and a half million in. About it was less than 24 hours because I literally fired out an email at about 2 am the morning on the Friday night and by 6 am we had the funding. And so that wasn't because of a great idea or because I'm an incredibly gifted entrepreneur. It was just because I kept in touch with people who believed in me and then I put a pretty reasonable idea in front of them and they backed it. And the last thing is probably we've done four rounds to date in a relatively short amount of time, and all those pre-seed investors have stayed on for four rounds, which to me is the real sign of approval from them. But the key is we're always raising money and the best time to raise money is when you don't need it. So I'm constantly raising and it's not trying to get checks, it's just trying to connect with people who may want to back us at some point and then staying in touch. And I send out weekly emails. It's literally a minute read and it's just people who have been interested in my journey. I fired an email one minute. It's got three points it's a high of the week, low of the week, what's looking promising and a photo, and that's it. And it just keeps people in touch, because often we go looking for money and we don't get it, and then you just kind of give up and you don't come back to them. It's like, well, maybe the time wasn't right for that person, that VC or whatever. So yeah, that's the way I've approached it.

Speaker 1: 22:11

Jay, I love that. So many wonderful points to take away from there, including this idea of keeping the relationships going with people, as you say, not falling at Buddha's feet just when you're a crisis, but paying homage and sort of showing up in a consistent way as well. Jay Gray, over there in Waikia and if you want to reach out to you or frankly, I'd love to go back to Waikia. I went there once many, many years ago and fell in love with it If you want to find out more about you and off-piste provisions, where can they do that?

Speaker 2: 22:41

Yeah, we're at our website on off-pieceprovisioncom. You can follow us on Instagram at off-pieceprovisioncom, LinkedIn. They're probably the three areas you'll get in touch and then I'm sure I can share my email Jim and Unites and have people to reach out. And we are looking for partners, especially up in the United States. We're currently doing a series A fundraise which is quite exciting. So, yeah, definitely keen to meet people who are keen to move the plant-based movement forwards in the US.

Speaker 1: 23:15

Jay, great, I've been hoping to have this conversation with you for a long time. Thank you so much for taking me up on the invitation to come on the show.

Speaker 2: 23:22

A lot of fun, jim. Thanks for the invite, cheers.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Well, isn't that fantastic. So plant-based alternatives, building a business from a paradise, really, waikia, and. But Jayde, he's being very modest there, but he is a brilliant marketer and also a brilliant entrepreneur, and I can vouch for both those, because he and him succeed in China and now in New Zealand. So if you've enjoyed this show, do please share it with a fellow unnoticed entrepreneur, and if you've got a chance to review it on your favorite player, then do that, because that already helps us with the show, and in the meantime, just encourage you to keep on communicating. Thank you for listening.