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Global Kiwi

Volcano Coffee Works

Kiwi founded, UK operated Volcano Coffee Works is among the many great coffee roasteries in the UK which has helped forge the coffee revolution here, for which many expat Kiwis are incredibly grateful. Trading through and beyond the economic impact of Covid-19 has many business owners and leaders working to navigate the myriad of information being shared by the government and professional service providers. Volcano Coffee Works Head of Finance, Stewart Morrin has had the unenviable task of deciphering the middle ground between government support, business conditions and financial stability.

Here they share with fellow food and beverage providers the options and considerations available to them during this time of economic disruption.

Cardrona Distillery

Cardrona Distillery made the news for their recent pivot to producing top quality hand sanitiser for their local community, following their having to stop commercial production of its whisky because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Deciding to give away the pure spirit from its gin and vodka stills for use as hand sanitiser. Founder Desiree Whitaker said “We are only a small distillery, it is not something we are set up to do [commercially], but we wanted to be able to do our bit for the community,”.

As another fantastic New Zealand business taking its products to the world, Cardrona encourage people to send a Kiwi made gift to a loved one or if you’d like to learn to upskill by learning the art of cocktail making at home, please consider buying your favourite spirits and upskilling through the recipes on their website. For the New Zealand shop, click here. For the UK shop, click here. 

Crosstown Doughnuts

You would struggle to find many Kiwis in London who haven’t heard of Crosstown. For the past 5 years they have brought to us the latest sensation of sourdough doughnuts. Like so many businesses, Crosstown has been massively affected by Covid 19. Recognising that they could not survive trying to do business as they previously have. But knowing that people still need to be fed, and looking at the capacities they had across logistics, people, product and technology – Crosstown Doughnuts banded together with Millers Bespoke Bakery & The Estate Dairy to create a Collective.

Between these companies they employ hundreds of people in offices, retail shops, logistics and in milk, food & bakery production. They needed to keep as many of these people working as possible. Together they bring you The Crosstown Collective. Using their industry contacts, they have sourced great local fruit & vegetables, coffee and even granola. A UK business with some Kiwi ingenuity thrown in for good measure. You can purchase a food box here.

Other Kiwi businesses in the UK which you can support:

  • Caravan Coffee Roasters. Caravan have announced their opening dates, check their website for details! In the meantime enjoy their artisan specialty coffee delivered straight to your door. The finest beans from around the world, selected and roasted in London. 
  • Clapton Craft. Clapton Craft are a craft beer and growler retailer with stores in Clapton, Kentish Town, Walthamstow, Finsbury Park and Forest Hill. Check out their online store for their full offering! 
  • Hops Burns and Black. Craft beer, hot sauce and records – finally all together. Check out their online store until the Peckham/East Dulwich and Deptford stores reopen.
  • Karma Cola. Good looking, great tasting, do gooding drinks. Good for our planet, our growers, and as good for you as fizzy drinks can be. #DrinkNoEvil. Get yours from Amazon, Ocado and Waitrose online.
  • Koru Kids. Kiwi founded, London based childcare service which specialises in after school nannies and helping families to find nanny shares, and offering Covid-19 Short-Term cover. Trying to work, homeschool and keep your kids calm and happy in this scary time? We can help. We have vetted, trained, energetic nannies in all of London’s neighbourhoods ready to help you with your short-term childcare.
  • Mere Restaurant. This South-Pacific French restaurant has announced it’s opening dates. Check out their website for details!
  • Ozone Coffee Roasters. Roasters of specialty coffee for flavor in the cup at home or in cafes, restaurants, offices and businesses. We are still shipping as usual to your lock-down location – home, working from home and business location.
  • Parkway Taxis. This Kiwi-owned and operated taxi business is available in Devon. If you’re getting off a train at Tiverton Parkway from London Paddington or Reading, look them up.
  • Pics Peanut Butter. Fresh roasted peanuts, lovingly squished in sunny Nelson, New Zealand. Get yours from Amazon and Tesco.
  • Provenance Village Butchers. Provenance is a modern interpretation of a traditional village butcher. They offer a next day delivery service to W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, SW1, SW3, SW5, SW7, SW10, NW6, NW8 and NW10.
  • Sacred Coffee.  We have been enjoying their gourmet coffee and tea for years… and their lolly cake. Gourmet coffee, tea and L&P available straight to your door.
  • SANZA.  Your one stop food shop that bring Australian, New Zealand, South African foods to ex-pats across London and the UK. When you may be feeling far from home, SANZA brings the taste of home to your front door.
  • Sarah Angel Photography.  Sarah Angel is a Surray-based photographer specialising in family photography. With safety measures in place, Sarah’s practice is open for business!
  • Secret Goldmine.  Secret Goldmine produces mouthwatering pies. A Kiwi delicacy which they are now delivering too!
  • Specialist Cellars. Wines of the new world. Melanie Brown has been bringing the best of New Zealand wines to the UK for many years. Jump on line and fill up the cellar.
  • The Laundry. This Brixton based bistro has recently announced its reopening dates. Check out their website for more details!
  • The New Zealand Beer Collective. At the NZ Beer Collective we have scaled back, are following all distancing guidelines and locking things down, but we really don’t know what else to do but keep selling beer. We have put in place a way to buy the beer directly from us, delivered safely anywhere in the UK, at some lockdown pricing. Contact Todd for the latest at [email protected].
  • Tried and True Cafe offer award winning innovative breakfasts, light lunches and serious espresso. Rob and the team look forward to welcoming you to this gem in Putney.
  • Yeastie Boys. New Zealand beer brewed here! Yeastie Boys have been brewing up a storm for the past 5 years in the UK. They want to keep their beer arriving to Kiwi fridges around the nation. Shop now on their new online store, and get a tasty 10% discount with your code of K1W1.

This list isn’t exhaustive and focuses on those who we know are trading through Covid-19 current restrictions. This list will be expanded on in the coming weeks. If you are a New Zealander in Business in the UK and would like to be listed here please contact [email protected]

Maryellen, Jeremy, and Jeremy’s half-sister Kate.

How did Piha Pies come about?

I’m from Auckland and moved to the UK in 1991 as a young cameraman and I’m now a Director of Photography working for all the channels including the BBC, C4 and most recently Netflix.

As a Kiwi, I always wondered why you couldn’t get a decent pie in the UK like the ones in NZ. So after many years of talking about it, in 2018 my wife Susanne and I took the plunge and started a little side business making pies from our converted outbuilding in Forest Hill. Then in September that year, we set up our first market stall at Norwood Feast market in South London – and quickly followed up with other markets, pop-ups and events.

We called named it Piha Pies after my favourite beach on the west coast near Auckland, where I spent a lot of time in my teens, and it’s where I return to every time I’m home and I always grab a pie or two from The Piha Store.

The pies were baked on old family recipes. What’s the story behind that?

This is quite a story. I always enjoyed cooking and when I was younger and it was a toss up whether to go into cooking or into TV work. TV work won out and cooking was put on the back burner.  Then about 6 years ago I found out a huge family secret. On a Christmas visit back to Auckland, my mum and dad sat me down and told me that I had in fact been adopted and that my birth mother wanted to get in touch with me. Although this was a massive shock, there was a silver lining…..

3 months later, after the dust settled I decided to find out who my birth mother was, so I tentatively picked up the phone and asked the adoption agency my mother’s name. I immediately googled her and up popped a newspaper article about Maryellen, the owner of a well renowned cafe in Kohu Kohu, Northland – famous for its pies.

Many months later after many email exchanges, getting to know each other and bonding over pie talk and a general love of food and cooking, we met up in NZ. I showed her photos of my childhood and got to sample some of her famous pies, which were laid out for my welcome. Talk turned to my dream of having a pie shop in London one day and plans were hatched to be taught some of Maryellen’s recipes. So, about a year later when she eventually visited me and Susanne in London, she taught me the family pie recipes. All the recipes were in Maryellen’s head, nothing was written down. We spent the next year practising her recipes, perfecting our own recipes and testing them out on family, friends and neighbours.

For our first market, Maryellen and my new-found sister Kate, also a great pie maker, happened to be over from New Zealand. They were able to give helpful advice and were like a lucky charm because the 100 pies sold out and Piha Pies got really positive feedback.

Do you attract mainly homesick Kiwi customers?

There are always lots of Kiwi customers at the pie stall but it is mostly Brits. What is incredible though is the number of British pie eaters coming back across the market to tell us they are the best pies they’ve ever had – which proves the power and draw of the Kiwi pie.

Since lockdown, we have started doing delivery of our pies – and there is a huge proportion of Kiwi buyers looking for comfort food from home.

Are there any particular moments that stand out in your journey?

It was an incredible moment to find out that we had won Best Newcomer in the British Pie Awards this year on top of a few other awards.

But the thing that really ignited our journey was the revelation that after all the years of talking about opening a pie shop my biological mother was already a professional pie maker and she was able to give such invaluable advice on how to start a food business.

Do you have a personal favourite pie?

We love them all and it’s hard to choose which is a favourite. It depends on what mood you’re in but if we had to choose, mine would be Pepper Steak and Susanne’s is Potato Top.

What are your plans for the future?

We want to expand the business so we can start supplying other businesses – we’ve had lots of requests from Delis, Butchers and Cafes to supply them with our pies. We would love to eventually start selling them in high end food stores and supermarkets so Kiwis and Brits across the UK can get hold of them easily. So we will be looking for investment to move into a bigger kitchen and start employing a team to upscale our output and distribution. 

CONTRIBUTOR

Jeremy Huson

Co-Founder

Piha Pies

Kea member

As the founder and CEO of a company with a presence in a range of markets, what unique opportunities do you think the Asian market presents to New Zealand companies?

Asia is a massive region, and in reality each country is very much their own market, with local supply chains, language, culture and currency all very different. What makes Asia great on this front is you can find a niche or get an entry point, and even scale up by just getting one Asian country working, or establishing an Asia HQ in Singapore or Hong Kong and branching out from there.

Asia has three major countries and large markets that stand-out, China, India and Japan. Each of these countries are billion dollar opportunities for almost any product or service, so trying to do more than one of these at the same time is a tall order. Achieving scale in just one will set your business alight, and you’ll have your Asia cornerstone. The other approach with Asia, and one we’ve taken with 90 Seconds, has been to establish a regional HQ in Singapore, as it is in a good central location in Asia.

Key benefits of a Singapore based Asia Regional HQ:

  1. Singapore is the regional HQ for hundreds of the world’s global companies and a node for many Asia HQ’d companies, so it’s got both the buyers and sellers to form your customer base and create partnerships that will help drive your Asia go to market strategy.
  2. English is the primary language which removes a whole world of barriers if you’re an English speaking / Kiwi company. You’ll benefit from having a melting pot of Asian and other international talent and cultures combined. You can build a team who share a common language, but speak 10-15+ languages from around Asia as we have. This enables you to reach and remote control into Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, China etc with your pan Asia team. It’s a joy.
  3. Putting aside the recent challenges, travelling around Asia from Singapore is easy.It’s cheap, it’s made for business, and departing from and arriving back to your base in Singapore is the nicest flying experience in the world.

Given the travel restrictions and social distancing measures put in place this year, how has this affected the way 90 Seconds operates, and how have you adapted?

For 90 Seconds, the lock downs have effectively killed film shoots, so that’s been a tough, instantaneous hit for us, our brands and creators. But conversely, we have over 12,000 90 Seconds creators, in 100+ countries, so as the lock-downs ease but the travel restrictions and likely slow recovery continue, the idea of flying film crews around (which is what many brands and agencies still do), will seem crazy. Our hyper-local creators become an even more valuable solution than they were before. We’re a completely online platform, so for brand managers and marketers who are stuck at home or not able to travel, using a platform makes more sense than ever. To cater for social distancing and safety, we’ve got clean shoot products in the market now, with specific production workflows to support hygienic and safe shoots in these odd times.

In terms of the company and organisation, the immediate demand hit is significant, and we’ve carefully aligned work, time and pay, especially in direct revenue connected teams, to make sure the company and jobs are stable mid to long term. It’s tough and we work super hard to strike the balance and support people, but it’s truly a different and false economy that’s been created. With the usual freedoms and autonomy taken away, it’s all about the most affected people right-sizing their personal economies to match the company’s shrunken economy, so we all come out together.

From a business development perspective, we’re a pretty online company, but also have sales and delivery teams in seven countries, so the lock-down and travel restrictions really drive the further transition to an ‘Inside Sales’ approach, where teams in one place are managing customers all over the world. This gives companies a better shot at driving revenue in international markets without having to travel as it’s become the norm. Embrace it, video and screen share more than ever, and reach those markets.

I’m also just completing a capital raise, so that’s been tough with Covid-19. I would usually lap the world several times over, from San Francisco, to New York, London, Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore, as the in-person experience is a powerful thing. However with the playing field now online, and investors who usually prefer to meet in person still needing to do deals, these deals are now being done from the lounge, pants optional!

Do you think the inability to travel is going to change the way people do business in the future?

I’m a native internet entrepreneur and built 90 Seconds without any offices or personally being in any one location. I’ve lived in cities across the globe for two decades, so believe it will continue to be valued until it’s mainstream. This disruption to the world is a catalyst to force this change upon people and companies. The idea of travelling and competing for resources from roads to cafes at peak hours has always seemed like the ultimate dead weight on people’s lives socially and financially, the lost productivity is crazy and perpetual.

How do you think how people communicate and share content will change as a result of Covid-19?

Video calls, screen sharing and collaboratively editing content are the basics of building direct relationships between team members, partners and customers. This works incredibly well, and it’s about to go to the next level.

If you could give one piece of advice to SME’s looking to expand into the Asian market, what would it be?

Hire someone local so you’re building a go to market plan in market, with the market. Don’t over formulate things on your own or with your team in New Zealand, make your in market ‘local team’ and potential Asia-based customers and partners part of the process. Like New Zealand, Asian countries value relationships, but Asia also can move really fast and that can be great for business. The region has a very long way to go. Businesses in Asia are always thinking about expansion and only see an expanding market – and as an Asia Pacific nation, Kiwis can join right in.

CONTRIBUTOR

Tim Norton

Founder & CEO

90 Seconds

Kea member

Clair Mills in Chad, 2007.

Can you explain a bit about the work of Médecins Sans Frontières?

MSF provides medical care to people in over 70 countries, primarily in contexts of conflict, epidemics and humanitarian crises. These vary from surgical and trauma projects in Yemen to HIV projects in Southern Africa, Ebola in Congo, maternity and child health in the Sahel (West Africa); health care in refugee camps from Bangladesh to Uganda, for people displaced in their own country, and migrants. And now with the COVID19 pandemic we are also supporting medical activities in Europe, with a focus on those who are most vulnerable or who miss out on health care. See www.msf.org for more info.

How did you come to work for MSF?

By chance really! After finishing my hospital and GP training in NZ, back in 1992 I answered an advert in a medical magazine and then visited the MSF office in Amsterdam – either they were impressed I’d come all the way from NZ, or I must have sounded very convincing! I spent 3 and a half years in the field with MSF, did a Masters in London and then worked for other organizations for a few years (WHO and Save the Children (UK), in DRCongo and Mozambique).

After coming back to NZ to complete my public health medicine specialist training, I was medical director for the Dutch MSF section for nearly 5 yrs. I’ve alternated working for MSF with public health medicine in Tai Tokerau since then – with a couple of short missions with MSF (cholera in Papua New Guinea, Ebola in 2014/15 in Sierra Leone) and now, since mid 2017, as medical director for MSF France.

During a pandemic where so many are at risk, how does MSF assess where the most vulnerable are and how to allocate resources?

It’s a major challenge. Firstly we need to protect our staff, in order to be able to respond effectively anywhere. Then in all the countries we work, we are adapting our projects to minimise transmission of infection, maintain critical services, supporting the public health authorities, and/ or setting up specific COVID19 treatment units.

We are particularly concerned about the impact of the pandemic on people living in areas of conflict such as Yemen, Gaza, Syria and Burkina Faso, where accessing populations to provide health care was already a major problem before the pandemic. There are also other specific groups we think are particularly at risk – people living with HIV, malnourished children, patients with TB and other diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

In addition, the impact of COVID19 on health services in many places means that for some time, many children may not get vaccinated, nor receive treatment for malaria; that more women die in childbirth, that more people do not have access to critical health care…

As so many countries have shut their borders, how has this affected the operations of MSF?

We have international staff in all our projects – and obviously this has really affected the ability to send people places- or to get them home. We do have very experienced and competent national staff, so we can largely maintain the activities so far. But we have had to reduce some specialist activities, especially surgical. There are also other important constraints now, imposed by the EU, on exporting medicines and personal protective equipment (masks, gloves etc) from Europe to other regions. As we depend on international supply chains, this is very concerning – and we are advocating to have exceptions made for humanitarian organizations.

Health workers around the world are increasingly becoming stretched thin by the sheer scale of the pandemic, and many medical professionals are coming out of retirement to help. Is MSF struggling to keep up with the demand for assistance?

Many of my colleagues, and specialists in my department here in Paris, are working in their home countries in the pandemic response. We still have international staff available but we have certainly noticed a drop in the numbers available.

For those of us sitting at home, how are we able to help MSF?

‘Be kind’ and ‘stay at home’, seem like very good advice right now! But of course MSF needs the ongoing financial support of our supporters and donors – mostly people like you and me, who give a few dollars a month. 90% of MSF’s income is from individual donors, and this gives us an exceptional independence and a flexibility which most other organisations don’t have. I hope that despite the difficult times, people do consider those worse off than themselves, and continue to support organizations like MSF.

CONTRIBUTOR

Clair Mills

Medical Director, Paris

Médecins Sans Frontières

Kea member

Mary Fenwick is an executive teams and leadership coach, who also writes the main advice column for Psychologies magazine. Since qualifying as a coach in 2009, she focuses on women in leadership, speaking up, and wellbeing.

Originally from Alexandra, Central Otago, Mary is a former chair of Kea UK, a TedX speaker, and regularly presents Facebook Lives to the 1.3million followers of the Psychologies magazine Facebook page. Last week, she did two Facebook Lives on the subject of resilience, where her interest comes from both personal and professional experience.

“In 2008, my husband died and, on the day of his funeral, I found out that the magazine I’d been editing had collapsed. So I entered the last global recession in the madness of bereavement, as a single parent (to four children) with no job. I don’t believe there is any one answer that will fit everybody when it comes to resilience, so I’m interested in sharing the widest possible range of resources, based on validated, peer-reviewed research”.

Get Mary Fenwick’s free guide to a more resilient you here.

Victoria Macdonald reporting from an ICU

Tell us about yourself, and your role as Health and Social Care Correspondent for Channel 4 in the UK.

I have been the health and social care correspondent for Channel 4 News in the UK for 21 years, reporting on the national health service, Government health and social care policies, as well as more global issues like HIV and TB. It is so varied – every day is different but the constant is always being ready to scramble to wherever you are needed and making sure your hair and clothes are tidy enough not to distract while on air!

You have been covering the developments of the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. What has it been like, and how does this compare to any other global health crisis you have covered?

For years I have reported on HIV and spent a lot of time in places like South Africa reporting on the terrible loss of life as well as the sometimes excellent, sometimes woeful, political responses worldwide. Several times during my career, ebola has broken out and we have prepared for it to spread globally. Each time it has been contained which is not to take away form the dreadful loss of lives in places like Sierra Leone and DRC. But nothing could prepare you for this pandemic.

We watched as it unfolded in China with increasing trepidation. Every day I would dial into the World Health Organisation press conferences as they gave updates on the figures and the strategies China was using to try and contain it. Once it spread across the world, my stories started to take in South Korea, the outbreaks on cruise ships, then Italy, and eventually, though inevitably to the UK. We have had to adapt rapidly to reporting at arms length (2m long poles to hold the microphones), zoom and Skype interviews are the norm, we rarely travel now. On the upside, there is more transparency from Government scientists in telling us what they do and don’t know, and we have far more ability to ask questions via the Downing Street briefing. I hasten to add, not all questions are answered or currently answerable but it is an important step forward.

Emotionally, it is distressing as you see the death toll climb and as more people are put in hospital. I said early on in this pandemic that as a reporter you are usually an observer but in this case we are all affected. My friends and family are as much at risk as everyone else’s. This isn’t something happening to other people, which is often the case when you are reporting. It is happening to all of us and I have to constantly remind myself, too, that I am not immune, and that I have to be careful, too. Seeing not just ‘elderly people with underlying conditions’ but young people. On a recent visit to an ICU Department I saw people who had been put into a coma and ventilated. It was distressing but I spoke to a nurse who had come back on to the ward after 10 years and I watched as she brushed the hair of a young woman and wiped her face. It brought me to tears.

Do you get overwhelmed, and if so how do you manage your own mental and physical health?

Do I get overwhelmed? Virtually every day. The amount of information coming in is incredible and you have to sift through it, work out what is true, what is important for that day, and what can hold or needs further investigation or interrogation. I don’t do it alone, I hasten to add. I have amazing colleagues, especially the producers I work with, so by the time the piece makes it to air a whole team has had input.

Every day I am working I also do a live in the studio to pick up on some of the areas that I haven’t had time to put into the piece, or that need more explaining. On my day off during the week I then have to turn my attention to home schooling which is infinitely more difficult than explaining coronavirus to the nation!!

In a world of social media and mis-information, what should our members be doing to ensure they have access to responsible and reliable reporting?

We are constantly bombarded with mis-information via social media and it is depressing how unquestioning some people can be but this pandemic has, on the plus side, brought out the scientist in many of us and I am impressed by how carefully the public is looking at the information available and taking on board the need for such things as shielding and social isolation. We are incredibly indebted to the Science Media Centre (there is a centre in NZ) who get expert comments to help you assess scientific papers being published or claims made.

While the world is focused on Covid-19, are there other global health and social care issues you are investigating and reporting on?

The very short answer to this is no. My job is only covid19 which is, of course, worrying because other health and social care issues haven’t gone away. Look at the measles epidemic, for instance, and all the children who still have not been vaccinated.

You have lived away from Aotearoa, New Zealand for some time, how do you think networks like Kea New Zealand help in the expat journey?

I am missing New Zealand very much at the moment, partly because of the fear it may be awhile before my daughter and I can visit, and because my parents and sister and brother are there and I worry about them. Keeping in touch with New Zealand and the expat community provides support at a time when you feel turned upside down by something so huge and so scary.

CONTRIBUTOR

Victoria Macdonald

Health and Social Care Correspondent

Channel 4 News, UK

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