Spreading success
An innovative butter substitute, born in Pukehina, is whipping up global demand.
words KIRSTEN MATTHEW
There aren’t many places on the planet that Craig Brown hasn’t seen nor many jobs he hasn’t tried. Mechanic, real estate agent, tech entrepreneur and now butter impresario, he has an affinity for jumping in at the deep end.
“Kicking doors down and climbing the mountain is challenging and stimulating,” Brown says. “I like swinging the bat.” His latest venture, Herbivore plant-based butter – a business he runs from his rural home in Pukehina – is his most recent challenge. He started it four years ago with no experience in food production or FMCG.
Raised in the Waikato, Brown left school and trained as a diesel mechanic. At 22, real estate beckoned and in his first year in the business Brown broke sales records for Harcourts.
“It was natural to me,” says Brown of real estate. “In that business, you are sharing really good, life-changing events with your clients and the energy was contagious. I loved that the harder you worked, the better you did.”
After two years Brown took a break, bought a ’67 Dodge and drove across the USA for kicks. He returned to Harcourts for a few years before embarking on another epic trip, hitchhiking overland from New Zealand to the Arctic Circle. The adventure took four years and saw Brown traverse Australia, Nepal, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, and travel south from Cairo to Capetown. When he returned, Brown joined AutoTV, a local show that promoted cars for sale on terrestrial television.
He bought AutoTV in 2009, in the midst of the global financial crisis. As sales got harder, he knew the brand had to adapt, so he took software invented by an acquaintance and morphed it into AutoPlay, an online platform that helps dealers and automakers to sell cars. Brands like Toyota and Kia signed on, and soon Brown was working with 80 percent of the franchise dealerships selling cars in New Zealand. AutoPlay launched in Australia in 2017 and was acquired by a firm in the United Kingdom the following year.
Brown moved to England to run the business for the new owners for a few years, and when he and his wife and family moved back to the Bay of Plenty, he knew he wanted to start something new.
“As individuals, we can control only what we eat, wear and how we get around, and when it comes to sustainability and the environment, we need to be doing whatever we can as individuals,” says Brown, who was determined to create an environmentally friendly product.
He investigated buying disused buildings and starting a business growing pea protein, but then learnt about coconut butter; that it produces a quarter of the emissions of bovine butter, and coconut trees remove carbon from the atmosphere.
“I’m not into telling people what to do, or saying that they have to be vegan for the planet,” says the confirmed carnivore. “But we need more food choices that are better for the planet. It’s about creating a product that adds value and I’m really proud that we are 100 percent plant-based.”
Brown found a farm in the Philippines where Herbivore’s coconuts are sourced and worked with the farmers to create the perfect butter, made from 67 percent coconut oil, water, sunflower oil, coconut milk powder and sea salt.
In the early days, there were no retail blocks — now Herbivore can be found in all good supermarkets in the butter aisle — just commercial-sized sheets for cafés, restaurants and bakeries. When Tart Bakery in Auckland won best vegan pie in the country with pastry made with Herbivore, Brown knew the business had legs. Just 10 weeks after diversifying into retail butter, Herbivore won the Foodstuffs Emerge award for new products. Partners soon came on board to help Brown with the business.
He’s still travelling the world, introducing food purveyors, bakers and chefs to Herbivore. It’s exported to Hong Kong and Thailand. Deals with the USA are in the pipeline. It means Brown, who lives with his wife and three of his four children on a lifestyle block, works strange hours, dealing with the US, UK and Asia early in the morning, and again once his boys are in bed at night. He grows kiwifruit and raises beef on their land, and won’t be giving up meat or bovine butter any time soon.
“I’m a real foodie,” he says. “At home we use Herbivore as our butter 85 percent of the time, but I use cow butter in my mashed potatoes. I think of Herbivore like brown sugar; an alternative that has its place in every kitchen.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop,” he says. “For me, it’s got to be fun. And fun is connecting with people and doing deals.”
