Jeff Whalley
January 25, 2013
Herald Sun
AUSTRALIA’S dominant maker of meat pies, Patties, wants to reinvent supermarket desserts and will give the Nanna’s brand a facelift in the coming months.
The new range is under development and the Victorian company is in discussions with retailers about stocking its new and rejuvenated products.
“We want to invigorate the Nanna’s brand,” chief executive Greg Bourke said. Patties plans to take products sold in traditional cake shops and offer them in supermarkets.
Mr Bourke said Patties was being cautious in its approach to changing Nanna’s products, which “must be quality, to stay engaged with consumers”.
“We must support and honour the brand,” he said.
Other brands owned by the company include Four’N’Twenty, Herbert Adam, Creative Gourmet and Chefs Pride. Mr Bourke said the strategy around the dessert range was one part of a three-pronged approach to securing Patties’ growth.
Patties, which is based in the eastern Victorian town of Bairnsdale, floated in 2006 and has a market capitalisation of about $220 million.
In the year to last June, it increased its net profit by 6 per cent, to $19.5 million.
It came in a year when a string of other Australian food manufacturers struggled, including confectioner Darrell Lea, and Gourmet Food Holdings, which makes Rosella products.
Both fell into receivership.
Mr Bourke said the sector had been beset by slow growth but food producers did not need to accept this.
“The phrase I’ve heard is: ‘Flat is the new growth’,” he said.
“It is easy to fall into that mindset of ‘Gee, we didn’t go backwards. Isn’t that good?’
“But we have an insatiable appetite for growth.”
The group’s plans include increasing its range of frozen party-food packs, such as the “East meets West” packs that include party pies, sausage rolls and spring rolls.
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