A little bit of Kiwi ingenuity went a long way for food ingredients company Taura. And some good fruit, of course. By Lesley Springall

Search the online media archives and there’s barely a mention of 36-year-old New Zealand ingredients company Taura Natural Ingredients. But down a bowl of muesli, munch a fruit snack bar or devour a packaged fruit loaf in most Western countries around the world and you’ll almost certainly be digesting a little bit of Kiwi ingenuity.

Born in the late 1970s out of a Bay of Plenty fruit growers’ cooperative, from 1991 Taura evolved into a global manufacturer of specialist fruit ingredients, after developing some innovative processing technology in response to a client’s request. Taura’s URC (ultra-rapid concentration) technology concentrates blends of fruit or vegetables to less than 10% moisture in just 60 seconds, while retaining flavour, colour and nutritional characteristics.

The technology revolutionised the fruit ingredients market. “URC produces a real fruit ingredient, as opposed to dried fruit, which is generally chemically altered,” says Taura’s marketing manager Amy Wright.

Today, the company’s URC technology also enables Taura to meet individual manufacturer’s specific requirements. “If they want their bits softer or harder, we can do that,” says Wright. Take Sanitarium’s Weet-Bix Fruity range: the little berries are designed to be soft, but without making the cereal soggy, she says.

Since URC’s development, Taura has launched more than 500 new products in more than 40 countries – products which feature in more than 1,000 supermarket goodies. The company turns over more than $60 million and employs more than 150 people, including 50 in New Zealand.

Recession allowing, Taura has plans to open a manufacturing plant in the US within 18 months, to add to established facilities in Mount Manganui and Olen, Belgium. It has offices in Australia, the US and the UK. The chief executive is based in Belgium, but the company’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer are based at its head office in Mount Manganui, where it all began.

Although Australian private equity firm Champ Ventures purchased the company last year, Wright says there are no plans to shift from New Zealand. “New Zealand is part of the heritage of the company … and there’s no need for geographic restrictions with [today’s] technology and global communication systems.”

New Zealand is also a big part of the continuing success of the company, she says. “The foundation of the company is based on a Kiwi ‘can do’ attitude, and this attitude recognises the need to work collaboratively, and a desire to create something from nothing.”

A whole range of ingredients can be developed from a fruit product, says Wright, and many companies, internationally, have developed quite broad offerings. But Taura’s always stuck to what it knows best: creating solutions for customers, rather than developing unique products.

“We have stayed pretty niche. The market is all innovation-based: everyone is trying to come up with the next new thing, whereas we’ve tried to focus on refining our products and our processes.”

As to advice for other Kiwi global wannabes? “Focus on what you know you want to do, and do it well,” says Wright. “And have a really clear vision on where you fit, and go after that.”