The last four months have been rather intense for us at the Vutter H.Q. Our team is currently only the two of us, husband and wife, Patrick and Aline. We had to make some hard changes to the structure of our business in order to make it through. I'm here full time, while Patrick still draws houses during the day as he runs his architecture business. At nights, we make Vutter together. We do love it, and thankfully the business is growing and finally BECOMING HEALTHY!
In September we are turning 3. Reaching break even point and starting to see the light shinning at the end of the tunnel brings us a lot of joy and hope that the hard work is finally paying off. It's a hard rocky road for small food businesses in New Zealand, I don't think many people realize that. I have to be honest with you, we were so close to giving up earlier this year...
Since the start of 2023 we've had the assistance of two wonderful human beings that somehow crossed our paths at an incredibly perfect timing. On the background, they have been giving us a lot of their time and expertise to support us through the growth. They have been acting as an advisory board and to be fair, their belief in us and in our business is the main reason why we didn't 'shut the shop' and moved permanently to Bali, lol
We are (all) very fortunate to have them around!
So around April we we had to make a decision to either move or renew our lease for another 2 years. For me it was an easy call - lets get out of here ! Mostly because I could no longer cope with having regular flooding issues, and unfortunately a landlord who really doesn't give a s**t...
So we started looking for a new place - and man it was hard. Not much commercial out there, and when you find something, it's miles away and soooo much more expensive. We were hitting a brick wall... When we were just about to give up and stay, with tears in my eyes I refreshed the trademe page, just once more... and boom - there it was, our place just up the road a bit!
A way nicer warehouse, and believe it or not, way cheaper! 'Someone' must be looking out for us out there!!!
We all know that moving is never easy. But try to picture moving a food manufacturing business, while trying to carry on manufacturing!
With a very tight budget to build a brand new kitchen in the new warehouse, and at the same time a lot of big orders coming in - including another one from My Food Bag for 1300ish hand wrapped 'mini blocks' - we had to put our heads down. We aren't scared of hard work at all, but it's physically impossible to achieve all that with only two people and no money !!
Fortunately myself and Patrick have an incredible group of friends who stepped in to help us! A working bee group was created and every single night after work, someone (or 'someones') would turn up to either help Pat with the building works next door, or to help me in the Vutter factory by wrapping, labelling, boxing blocks, or just being there for me.
The move of the big chiller was for me the absolute highlight! It happened on the last weekend before we had to give back the keys. We had about 20 or more beautiful and fun humans, some strong man lifting, one flat deck trailer, our dogs & teenagers, our friends dogs & kids & a wonderful 'support crew'!
Between the many late nights, the couple of Vutter spillage accidents, the few mental breakdowns with some tears (ok, A LOT of tears!), the 'hot date nights' at Bunnings, the many trips to the chiropractor, the massage vouchers that we still didn't have time to use, and most importantly, the wonderful display of aroha from our beautiful whanau, we have now moved!
We have now settled down in what Patrick likes to refer to as the "Riviera of Takapuna"! Facing the beautiful Patuone Reserve with loads of sunlight, newly planted native trees (which Pat helped plant!), a lot of birds, no more floods, and a much better vibe!
Cheers to our whanau for making this possible! We love you - you know who you are!!!
And thank you who supports us by buying our products and spreading the Vutter word!
We welcome you to come visit us at 20D Barrys Point road at anytime!
Enjoy the photos below of those crazy last few months!
