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Rogernomics Catalyst for Change
By Sandra Taylor and published in the February 2005 issue of
Country-Wide southern edition.
Target a market and work towards it.
This simple philosophy is behind the success of Canterbury farmers,
exporters, viticulturalists, and restaurateurs Brent and Shirley
Rawstron.
Speaking at last year’s Holistic Management conference, Brent Rawstron
says he began his farming career in the 1970s on his family’s mixed
cropping farm, all ticking along nicely until, as Rawstron says, along
came Roger Douglas.
Brent says doing what they were doing meant they couldn’t survive
without subsidies so consequently they had to adapt or disappear.
They chose to adapt, looking to change from a mixed cropping operation
to something where they could target the end market. Cattle
appeared to be the best option.
But it wasn’t all straightforward. Initially the Rawstrons looked
at exporting beef to the high value Japanese market, but in the 1980s
any trade with Japan had to be through this country’s tightly regulated
and profit sapping trading houses, making such a venture uneconomic.
The second highest value market the Rawstrons could trade with was
Germany, and it was here they found success.
Brent’s European-based and German-speaking brother carried out market
research on Brent and Shirley’s behalf and ended up knocking on the
door of the very old and established specialist delicatessen Dallmayr.
Dallmayr welcomed the prospect of dealing with the grower directly; in
fact they had been waiting a long time for a farmer to approach them;
and so began a mutually beneficial relationship between the Rawstrons
and the German company.
After securing the company’s interest in their beef, the most important
step the Rawstrons took was to find out exactly what Dallmayr wanted
and made sure they supplied the products to meet Dallmayr’s
specifications.
In Hindsite finding an export market was the easy part.
None of the meat processors around Christchurch were prepared to kill
the cattle on behalf of the Rawstrons, so they had to find a trucking
firm willing to carry the cattle to the Phoenix meat works on the West
Coast, who were willing to kill and process the cattle.
They also had trouble getting an export licence as major exporters
unrealistically feared the Rawstrns would undercut existing players in
the market.
Despite these initial setbacks the Rawstrons forged ahead and now send
vacuum packed tender loin, strip loin, and ribeye steak out of
Christchurch every month.
The Rawstrons buy the cuts they want from the meat processors at export
schedule prices, so they are not left with the cuts Dallmayr do not
want.
Rawstron says there are three profit making opportunities in his beef
business, either from the local schedule, export schedule, or through
foreign exchange.
At any one time one of these can be negative, but never two at the same
time.
“There is always one way of maximising returns.”
To differentiate their beef from beef raised in any other
country, the Rawstrons use an “island paradise” image as a foreground
story to thir product, steering clear of images of cattle and sheep,
which Rawstron believe puts consumers off the product.
“why show someone what you’re going to kill for them to eat. Its
very, very important to have pleasant visuals to tell people about your
product.”
The Rawstrons offered Dallmayr exclusivity of Rossendale branded beef
and offered complete traceability of their products, at least 10 years
before anyone else.
Having got the beef export business up and running, the Rawstrons
through about products to compliment their beef and looked at the wine
industry.
The couple began by planting a small area of grapes.
A natural, but well thought out, progression on from the winemaking
venture was the conversion of an old cottage on their property into a
restaurant.
After researching the market the Rawstrons initially targeted women,
post 35 years old, offering them lunches Monday to Friday.
But their big drive was the function side of the business, as this is
where the money was.
Rawstron syas the a la carte side of the business was very difficult to
run to make money, but used it as a foreground story to promote
Rossendale Winery as a wedding venue.
The important factor in setting the restaurant and function centre
business was that the Rawstrons knew what the market was five years
before they had the product, so they were providing exactly what the
market wanted.
“In 1993 the target market flocked through the door and over 75% of the
people in our restaurant were women over 35 years old.”
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