Peanut butter baron Pic Picot's long road to the top

Saturday, 17 April 2021

Over the past decade, Nelson entrepreneur Pic Picot has seen his peanut butter business grow from a one-man operation in his garage to employing 50 people and being one of the most respected brands in the country.

In his new book Pic: Adventures in sailing, business, and love, Picot tells the story of how he got there, and the ups and downs along the way.

As well as entertaining readers with tales of his adventures, dreams, and schemes, Picot hoped his story would encourage other entrepreneurs.

While almost always colourful, Picot's journey through business and life hasn’t always been a smooth ride.

Pic Picot has written a book of his memoirs - from his early days as an entrepreneur and sailor through to the success of Pic's Peanut Butter

* How Pic Picot went from barefoot hippy to peanut butter king

* Pic Picot and the peanut butter factory

Pic Picot loads a sack of raw Australian peanuts into his roaster at the Wakatu Industrial Estate back in 2009.

After setting up a string of businesses throughout his career – with an interlude to build a boat and sail around the Pacific – the success of Pic's Peanut Butter came somewhat out of the blue.

“I thought I would slide into quiet retirement,” Picot said.

“I was 55 and had enough money to get by if I was careful, but then the peanut butter sort of came along really.

“I was quite happy. I never intended it to get as huge as it has, but it’s been really fun.”

Picot’s first enterprise started before he left school, after watching a man making home-made sandals while on holiday in Australia.

On his return home he got together some leather and tools, taught himself sandal-making and started to sell his wares to his fellow students.

Pic Picot surprises the public with a giant jar of Pic’s during the Pic's Peanut Butter World grand opening in 2019.

After dropping out of university Picot set up various business enterprises, including his own leather goods company, an artisan’s workshop, a restaurant and a sailing school.

While not all of them were successful, Picot said he wouldn’t want to paint any of them as a failure or a mistake.

“The fear of making a mistake is such a tragic loss of opportunity.

“I think the only reason you can call something a mistake is if you think your life is a bit s… and you’re going to blame it on this mistake you made.

“I don’t think it works like that – you have no idea what would have happened if you had not done something, or had done something different in the past.”

Picot said one of the key messages he wanted to get across in the book was the importance of having the confidence to give things a go without the fear of failure.

“Hopefully it will give people some ideas, and make them see that even if things are looking a bit grim all is not lost – they can still do some cool stuff.

“I know my parents were terribly worried about me right through my life I think until a few years ago.

“But there’s so much you can do, people have so much potential and ability to contribute if they just get stuck in.

“I think today a lot of kids who want to start a business think they have to raise a whole lot of money and do this and that – and they miss out on the opportunity to start out small and learn from the ground up.”

As a long-time sailing enthusiast, Picot said there were a lot of lessons about self-reliance and leadership from the world of sailing that helped prepare him for business.

However, it wasn’t until his 50s when his eyesight began to fail him – that he understood the value of being able to trust and rely on other people.

Unlike in past business ventures, as he was setting up Pic’s Peanut Butter he had been forced to delegate more.

“In previous businesses I had always thought I was the cleverest person at just about anything I turned my hand to – and I couldn’t trust anyone else to do as good a job as me on anything.

“If not for [my eyesight] I would still be trying to do everything myself, setting up software, looking after accounts, design and marketing, fixing machines.

“But with my eyesight deteriorating and not being able to do everything, I had to involve other people, and I think that’s why the peanut butter business got so huge.”

Pic: adventures in sailing, business, and love will go on sale nationwide in bookstores and Countdown supermarkets from April 27, and will be available at selected retailers and online at https://www.picspeanutbutter.com/nz/ from Monday, April 19.