Serra Natural Foods
Serra Foods is an independent dairy company manufacturing, marketing and distributing mainly organic consumer products to mainstream NZ retailers.
The company was founded in 1988 in Christchurch by CEO Jim Small and Leonie Eaton with the launch of Cyclops Yoghurt. As one of the founding partners in Only Organic babyfood, Serra Foods gained access to organic ingredients and was able to convert Cyclops product range to organic in 1994. Fresh yoghurt sales are mainly confined to domestic market while a premium organic frozen yoghurt was launched two years ago to facilitate low impact export sales.
They have identified their key social challenge is that society’s relationship with food is increasingly affected by the media and the mode of obtaining food is principally supermarkets. Consequently there is increased anxiety about food and more incentive for the food industry to market more processed, sensual and impulsive food. Serra's Customer Value Statement states: ‘Exceptional Health with Inspirational Food” - which means they avoid making functional product claims and try to design good quality food products with long life cycles with minimal display advertising. The intent is to maintain trust with the consumer to reduce food anxieties and marketing waste.
The environmental challenge is that food production, logistics and manufacturing have the potential for significant environmental impact if not managed well.
Electricty, diesel, water and trade waste are quantified and reported monthly. GHG emissions are reported annually in a carbon reduction report and included in the monthly Profit & Loss statement, quarterly and annual reports are received from NZ Food Safety Authority and the Organic Certifier respectively. An independent EECA approved energy audit has been completed to benchmark and identify efficiencies. Serra also buy carbon credits to offset GHG emissions to send the correct business signal for reduction.
Solid waste charges are minimised by collating all clean post-industrial plastic for collection by a recycler and pallets are returned, reused or recycled. "We have used our water cooling tower to transform the evaporator from being a big water user to a water positive process" says CEO Jim Small. Food (and coffee) waste is collected and used in Jim's worm farm.
Serra are developing their sales and distribution processes to improve their ability to bring new products to the market within well defined brand values. They constantly are increasing their ability to communicate directly with customers and invest in developing export markets to achieve competitive scale.
5 Year Goals to March 2015 which relate to sustainability include 75% of income generated off-shore , maintaining 75% of income from branded product and 75% organic production, a 50% reduction in carbon per litre of milk processed in 2009 and GHG emissions offset for the whole value chain (currently just on site) . Serra aims to be water neutral in manufacturing , have 2% of equity in a charitable foundation and 1% of staff time given to community voluntary work.
