Cookie Time's expertise in the food business was recognised in Champion Canterbury Business Awards i

General manager Lincoln Booth has been with the privately owned company for eight years. During that time he has seen consistent revenue growth surrounding what now totals 44 products to an annual figure of about $30 million.
Cookie Time is celebrating its 30th year since it was set up by Michael Mayell in a one-bedroom flat. Six months later he was joined by his brother Guy Mayell, with the original factory site in Wickham St, Bromley.
"[Michael] was looking for a business idea, and saw that cookies were pretty prominent in America. He fell in love with the cookie shops over there and thought it would be a good concept to bring back," Booth says.
The brothers remain joint owners of the business, which now has around 100 employees and three brands including Cookie Time, Bumper Bar and One Square Meal. Ingredients are sourced locally where they can be, including chocolate from Christchurch-based Richfields and butter from Westland Milk Products.
In the last five years the brothers have invested north carolina beach vacation home rentals a further $5 million in automation for the sole New Zealand manufacturing factory. Branding, including the Cookie Muncher character, product innovation and understanding customers has been another focus in that period, Booth says. Funding comes through cashflow and bank debt.
The site, incorporating a state-of-the-art Italian automated cookie manufacturing equipment, runs a 10-hour shift from Monday to Friday producing around 400,000 cookies a week. The new equipment doubled throughput.
Booth is passionate about the steps the cookie maker has taken to widen its footprint, including the Queenstown retail outlet in Camp St which has seen double digit revenue growth year on year. "You could get caught up in a wave of excitement. [But] just because you've got a good store in Queenstown doesn't north carolina beach vacation home rentals mean you're now going to open up a shop in Dunedin or Wellington."
Auckland-based patent attorneys James Wells is helping with this process. "We spend a lot of time and money with our IP [intellectual property], we've got such a strong brand in New Zealand we know it can be transported."
The Queenstown store concept often drew interest from visitors to the Central Otago location. "We've north carolina beach vacation home rentals got active conversations happening up in Asia . . . most days we are getting inquiries from overseas customers wanting to know more about the [potential] retail franchises."
There has been some thought to entering the Australian market, but Booth says supplying the supermarkets, for example, would require deep pockets. north carolina beach vacation home rentals "I think the strategy would be to go in and start with the convenience channel . . . petrol stations and the dairies, setting up a bottom-up distribution network as opposed to a bottom north carolina beach vacation home rentals down."
"We [at Cookie Time] are of course north carolina beach vacation home rentals wholesalers and when you take your wholesale cap into retail it's certainly a different proposition. You've got to bring a creative mindset to retail . . . the heart and soul of the store is based on the five senses . . . you'll go in and it's not really about the cookies, it's about the experience that you're going to receive north carolina beach vacation home rentals and the service you'll get instore, it's the feeling the tasting, the hearing. We've got certain touch points, They're baking cookies on site for a start," Booth says.
"In wholesale you're going to people, peddling your wares. Whereas in retail you're north carolina beach vacation home rentals waiting for people to walk in the door. And that's north carolina beach vacation home rentals the fundamental difference - how do you attract north carolina beach vacation home rentals people from the street into your environment, and then get them to purchase?"
"There's the fantastic sounds that come from outside that provide the rhythm and the beat, you've got the smell and aroma of the cookies as they're north carolina beach vacation home rentals being baked on site, you've got what we call our cookie connectors which is our girls out in the front offering free samples, connecting with customers.
Cookie Time's expertise in the food business was recognised in Champion north carolina beach vacation home rentals Canterbury Business Awards in 2013 and in 2010. The company took out the Champion Producer-Manufacturer medium-large north carolina beach vacation home rentals categories on both occasions.
The Templeton factory experienced s little earthquake-related damage, Booth says, with 30 metres of gravel under the buildings. Despite only "cosmetic" damage the company will strengthen the building "to bring it up to code".