The Small Business Project: Aiming to be ‘Kiwi alternative to Baileys’

Monday, 21 October 2024

The Small Business Project is a weekly series that shines the spotlight on Kiwi small businesses doing interesting and unusual things in their industries.

Remarkable Cream founder Wills Cameron has been on a journey over the past four years as he has relaunched a business that was once run and started by his family. Cameron tells Aimee Shaw why getting an investor on board was the best thing he ever did - and how he has navigated running a consumer goods business amid an economic downturn.

What has your venture set out to achieve?

Remarkable Cream is a cream liqueur brand. We’re aiming to be the Kiwi alternative to Baileys. We don't use artificial ingredients and use real chocolate, coffee and fresh raspberries in our drinks. We've recently done a whiskey liqueur with horopito and manuka honey, and a 16% alcohol chocolate sauce. Originally Remarkable Cream was a family business that started in Otago 20 years ago under the name Otago Goldfields.

The previous business my father had shut down five years ago and there wasn't much to salvage, other than his expertise and the recipe, so I started it in Auckland again out of The FoodBowl because we didn't have a factory or any money; and had to figure out how to get production under way.

Today, we have our own factory and we’re in about 250 shops at the moment, including Liquorland, Super Liquor, Bottle-O and Liquor Centre.

How much time and money have you invested so far?

From starting from scratch 4½ years ago, over half a million dollars has been put into the business, with my partner Jiarong Li and I working on it fulltime non-stop for a few years. When it gets close to Christmas, like last year, we had five people plus us, working in the factory. At the moment, it’s just non stop. I work over 50 hours a week.

What’s your background?

I'm not an experienced businessperson. Before this, I was studying at university and working as a duty manager in a liquor store, which was relevant, but not that helpful for running a business. Next year I plan to bring on a whole team because we did 16, 17, big food shows this year, which is quite a lot to do whilst also running a factory. Events are a really important aspect of the business for us as we pull in a lot of sales.

How tough is it to be in business right now?

Our revenue is slightly up, but the truth of it is retail is way down, however, we've been doing really well at events. People walking into shops are trading down from top shelf or new products, but people walking into events are going out to spend money - a different demographic.

What’s the biggest challenge your business is facing?

Convincing people to part with their disposable income. We're on the premium end of the market, some of our products are $5 below Baileys, some are $15 above, so it takes a lot of convincing people that the value is there. There’s no business in heavy discounting so it means convincing people to spend, and I feel like Christmas is starting a little bit later this year; from talking to the shops.

What’s the biggest issue impacting your industry?

There's been a big trend in liquor stores de-stocking, basically trying to reduce the number of skews, because there was such a boom with gin and craft beer. Basically they're saying there's too much on the shelf and there’s been a fight for shelf space. A couple of months ago, I thought, ‘Oh is it just me not doing well in retail’, but then I talked to my peers in the same industry, and the distributors, and they said everyone is in the same boat.

What’s next for Remarkable Cream?

In December, we're going to release a piña colada, which is going to talk to the fact that we're based in Auckland, and a lactose-free Keto cream liqueur, it's going have a fresh cream base with pineapple vodka and less than 1% sugar. Next year we will release a dairy-free option. The biggest thing that keeps me interested in business is what’s the next thing we can innovate. We use our attendance at events such as food shows to seek feedback and inspiration for what we should create next.

In three years time you will …

My plan is to move into a bigger site at the end of next year because we are outgrowing where we are now in Ōtāhuhu. I went to China twice this year and had a few meetings over there, and it does look like New Zealand, Australia and China will become the focus for us.

Australia is actually a really tough market for New Zealand liquor beverages, some of them go over there but the profits are normally terrible, so instead we’re focusing heavily on China. When I go to Australia, people kind of give me a cold reception, but when I go to China I get such a warm reception and they want to buy the product. We’ve already done export over there, half a pallet, but it was successful.

What’s one thing you wish you’d known before starting the business?

We've been in our own factory for 2½ years, thankfully, as we couldn't stay at the Foodbowl any longer; they said to us making our product was one of the most difficult projects they'd done. It's meant to take a week for production, but the first batch took three months. It got to the point where I said ‘Look, I don't think this is working for any of us’, it was around the time of the second Covid lockdown. I fortunately found an investor, and he kind of funded our move into our own factory.

I wish I'd known not to try and do e-commerce in glass bottles; it was a disaster. It would have saved me a year and a half of pain at the start.

Most helpful piece of advice you have ever received?

My investor Colin said: Scaling up the business is going to take five times longer and be 10 times more difficult than you think. If you go into business knowing that, I think it makes it easier to ride the difficult times.

If you would like your business to feature in The Small Business Project, email Aimee Shaw at aimee.shaw@stuff.co.nz