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Zespri Appoints Jason Te Brake as CEO
After an extensive international search Zespri has appointed Jason Te Brake as Chief Executive Officer, Zespri Chairman Nathan Flowerday has announced.
Mr Te Brake is currently Zespri’s Chief Operating Officer and will succeed outgoing CEO Daniel Mathieson who is leaving Zespri to join Driscoll’s, effective 1 July.
Mr Flowerday says, “Jason is an outstanding executive with the strong commercial and stakeholder management experience we were looking for. He has a clear strategic vision to help Zespri and the industry achieve its immense potential and the operational expertise to ensure we do so.
“He has done an outstanding job of leading our global supply chain and the New Zealand supply business as our Chief Operating Officer. He has also delivered exceptional results based off detailed planning and execution as the industry responded to the recent quality challenges and then reset to deliver a record crop this year.
“There is significant and growing demand for Zespri Kiwifruit which will add real value to our industry and communities. Zespri has a strong strategy in place as we pursue that, with Jason able to provide the vision and continuity as well as the knowledge of our industry to deliver on that.”
Mr Te Brake says the opportunity to lead Zespri is an honour.
“I am hugely passionate and energised about the opportunities for the industry and it’s a real honour and privilege to be able to lead Zespri.
“The kiwifruit industry has an outstanding track record of success, off the back of quality people, a world-class product and strategy and a commitment to innovating and tackling challenges together. It is one of New Zealand’s great success stories and I am incredibly fortunate to be following in the footsteps of, and working alongside, some of the industry’s outstanding leaders.
“My focus will be on leading the Zespri team to capture the significant demand opportunities in market, on strengthening our supply chain and operational performance to maximise value in market and on ensuring we return as much of that value back to growers as possible.
“I’d like to thank Nathan and the Board for the faith they have shown in me and also thank Dan Mathieson for his guidance and mentorship. Dan has been an outstanding leader for Zespri, helping turn us into a world class sales and marketing organisation which is able to deliver significant value for our growers and our communities.”
Mr Flowerday again acknowledged Mr Mathieson’s immense contribution to Zespri.
“Dan has been a world class leader at Zespri and has led the industry through both strong growth and considerable challenges. He’s someone who has a genuine care for people and our industry".
ZIWI’s Innovation pre-launched at the Shanghai Flagship Store
High consumption pet owners in China are rapidly increasing, with a growing need and attention to the high quality and nutrition of pet food. ZIWI adheres to its “Four Peak Standards”, “Peak origins, peak ingredients, peak recipe, peak process". ZIWI aims to understand pet owner needs, continually innovate to lead market trends, strictly product quality control and maintain sustainable development, bringing pure nutrition to a broad consumer base. ZIWI believes that this is the fundamental driving the brand's growth.
ZIWI® Peak has pre-launched two innovations at the Shanghai flagship store—ZIWI® Peak Freeze-Dried Booster Series and ZIWI® Peak Steamed & Dried Series. The Booster series implements advanced HPP (High-Pressure Processing) sterilization technology, which achieves peak nutrition without compromise, ensuring a safe and efficient process. The ZIWI Freeze-Dried Booster series consistently follows peak process standards to meet the needs of pets.
ZIWI® Peak Freeze-Dried Booster includes two series: Raw Superboost and Functional Boosters. Raw Superboost are raw-inspired, freeze-dried, daily wellness boosters, that add taste and variety of nutrition to support thriving pets. It is up to 98% fresh nutrition and 2% natural nutrients, a pure recipe that is an excellent alternative to raw food. The newly launched 2024 ZIWI Peak’s booster recipes are designed to give pets a delicious boost of proactive nutrition. It focuses on highly defined functional nutrition, such as Gut and Immunity, Hip and Joint, Skin and Coat, combining the power of natural herbs with fresh nutrition to provide customized nutritional plans for pets without any synthetics.
ZIWI® Peak Steamed & Dried Series is an innovation that ZIWI has globally debuted, including in the Chinese market. Crafted according to ZIWI’s philosophy of pure origins, peak ingredients, and peak processing, ZIWI Peak Steam & Dried uses a brand-new two-step process called Z-MicroSteam™ to ensure optimum nourishment and palatability. The new ZIWI Peak Steam & Dried process keeps the ingredients as close to nature as possible. The process involves delicate micro-steaming that aerates the ingredients to create a light, tempting, crisp texture pets love, followed by a two-step air drying process to remove moisture and pathogens, before locking in nutrients. ZIWI Peak Steam & Dried dog recipes contain 85% premium animal ingredients, and include fruits and vegetables, a natural source of fibre to support digestion; ZIWI Peak Steam & Dried dog recipes contain 87%-90% premium animal ingredients including wild-caught whole Mackerel, Southern Blue Whiting, Hoki, and Sardines sourced from waters surrounding New Zealand. These species contain Omega-3 fatty acids for skin health and a shiny coat.
This innovation has already landed in ZIWI’s Tmall Cross-Border Flagship Store, and general trade products will be fully available around September 2024.
As a leader in the ultra-premium pet food industry, ZIWI adheres to the "Four Peak Standards," continuously investing more resources in innovation and new product development, keeping brand building to meet the needs of Chinese consumers, and capturing market growth opportunities. As a leader in omni-channel development, ZIWI brings more creative contributions to the whole pet food industry.
In the recent pre-6.18 promotions, ZIWI has been a great performer in the pet food industry. It has gained the wide recognition of the consumers, and we look forward to more achievements.
Grin Natural: Sponsorship of the Suzhou Taihu Lake Digital Half Marathon
In May 2024, Grin proudly sponsored the 2024 Suzhou Taihu Lake Digital Half Marathon in China!
Despite the wine and rain, over 7,500 participants braved the conditions in this challenging yet invigorating event. Grin were proud to be a part of such a fantastic day, and showcase our brand's passion for a healthy lifestyle!
This was the first time for Douyin (Tiktok) official store to collaborate with Grin for an offline sporting event in China. It was great to see many new runners complete the Half Marathon and take photos at the Grin stand for remarkable memories.
NZBRiC Activities
May Kiwi Drinks
On May 10th, NZBRiC hosted May Kiwi Drinks at the outdoor area of the Black Stone Bar on a perfect early summer evening. The event attracted around 55 people from the Kiwi community and their friends in Shanghai. We are excited to see Kiwis visiting Shanghai making the effort to join this event and meet old and new friends.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to the New Zealand brands, particularly those from NZBRiC membership, for their generous sponsorship of the charity raffle. Their support was instrumental in the success of this event. We also appreciate the great collaboration with Kea.
NZBRiC opens the survey period for its 2024 Business Outlook Survey
NZBRiC was delighted to open the survey period for the second annual NZBRiC Business Outlook Survey. The largest survey of its kind, it invites New Zealand business leaders with operations in China to contribute their insights and expertise to a key business resource to be used by business leaders, governments and policy makers.
This year, the business outlook survey period ran from May 20th- May 31st, it was sent to over 70 companies.
NZBRiC would like to thank all the companies that took part in this year’s survey, we are now assessing the results and will have preliminary findings available at the end of June, with the full report to be published in July.
If you have any questions on the survey or are a media agency and would like to get in touch about interviews once the report is ready, please email information@nzbric.com.
NZBRiC attends the New Zealand Wine Roadshow
NZBRiC enjoyed attending the New Zealand Wine Roadshow in Shanghai! A fantastic platform to showcase New Zealand's finest wines and connect with industry professionals, as well as catchup with NZBRiC wine members Babich Wines Ltd, Achernar, Tiraki, and Ruby Red. The event provided valuable insights into China's wine consumption trends, highlighting the growing demand for high-quality and diverse wine options, including the rapid development of the white wine category. NZBRiC asked member companies Achernar and Babich for their insights from the event:
Achernar
1. What are the key factors that influence Chinese consumers' preferences when it comes to purchasing wines?
First of all, the health trend has changed Chinese drinking habits from spirits to wine. The image of wine now represents a healthy and stylish lifestyle, unlike spirits. These are the two main reasons why Chinese customers are choosing to buy wine over spirits. Therefore, it's crucial for our wine to showcase a fresh and pure image and to reflect the unique lifestyle associated with it.
The second factor is finding the right balance between quality and price, which New Zealand wines excel at.
2. How are New Zealand wine brands perceived by Chinese consumers?
Chinese consumers generally view New Zealand wine brands favorably, appreciating the fresh and pure characteristics of Sauvignon Blanc, as well as the great quality and fair prices of Pinot Noir.
3. What are the preferred consumption habits of Chinese consumers when it comes to wines?
Professional and well-educated consumers believe that New Zealand wines offer a great balance between quality and price when compared to French fine wines. However, many consumers are interested in trying New Zealand wines but do not know much about New Zealand brands yet.
4. In retrospect, what key insights or lessons did you gain from participating in the wine expo, and how do you plan to leverage these learnings to further strengthen your presence and sales in the Chinese wine market?
Over 70 wineries were participating in the Roadshow this year. It's important to consider how to differentiate our brand, especially since many of the Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs may have a similar taste profile. We take pride in offering Churton, which has been practising biodynamic growing for over 20 years. This approach results in a more complex style of Sauvignon Blanc. We plan to further promote this concept in the future.
5. What are the differences in visitors' interest in wine varieties and behavior between this year and last year?
More customers are showing interest in white wines, not only Sauvignon Blanc, but also Chardonnay and Riesling. They are even showing interest in Viognier and Petit Manseng.
6. What are some of the key highlights from the wine roadshow that you found most interesting or memorable?
It is great that customers are showing strong interest in NZ wines. Many are familiar with our brands such as Escarpment and Haha.
Babich
1. What are the key factors that influence Chinese consumers' preferences when it comes to purchasing wines?
The key factors influencing Chinese consumers' preferences when purchasing wines are price, perceived value, and regional background. Chinese consumers are very price-sensitive, and they highly value direct import wines from major retailers such as Sam’s Club and Hema due to their perceived high value and lower margin rates. Additionally, red wines are generally preferred over white wines, although preferences may vary based on food style and regional background.
2. How do Chinese consumers perceive New Zealand wine brands?
New Zealand is still a less recognized wine region, but it is gaining more attention. Generally, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are the top two varieties for those familiar with New Zealand wines. In terms of brands, New Zealand does not have many well recognised brands.
3. What are the preferred consumption habits of Chinese consumers when it comes to wines?
Chinese consumers have varying wine consumption habits based on region, generally preferring red over white, but southern coastal cities showing a higher white preference.
4. In retrospect, what key insights or lessons did you gain from participating in the wine expo, and how do you plan to leverage these learnings to further strengthen your presence and sales in the Chinese wine market?
China is highly diverse, with varying consumer habits and sales channels, so it's important to be flexible when dealing with customers from different regions.
5. What are the differences in visitors' interest in wine varieties and behavior between this year and last year?
To me, there wasn't a lot of change, sauvignon blanc prevails and pinot noir follows.
6. What are some of the key highlights from the wine roadshow that you found most interesting or memorable?
At the NZ roadshow, I found the exposure to NZ wine to be great. However, in terms of the trade business, it might be challenging due to the high number of competitors and limited customer sources.
NZBRiC visits Zhongyin Law
NZBRiC Vice-Chair Rocky Meng and Executive Director Anna-May Isbey visited Zhong Yin Law in Shanghai and met with National Biopharmaceutical Enterprise Platform ESG Committee Secretary Clarissa Shen, Director of Zhong Yin Law Firm Cao Zhilong, and Senior Partners Zhong Jian and Jie Ze Kun.
The two sides shared fruitful discussions covering ESG compliance for foreign companies in China as well as two-way investment opportunities between China and New Zealand. As China has implemented its ESG Reporting Guidelines, some key takeaways on ESG compliance in China:
Proactive preparation is key! Companies need to understand the local laws and regulations surrounding ESG and implement a comprehensive compliance program or risk looking ill-prepared compared to their competitors.
China's ESG regulations promote sustainability-related information disclosure in governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics. Companies should look for ways to maintain transparency and accountability in their ESG program and conduct regular risk assessments.
Additionally, companies should engage with stakeholders, including employees, local governments, and their target consumer segments to ensure that their ESG practices align with local values and expectations.
