News

We are on the move. So exciting after 5 years in a garage and two offices.  We are also opening a small showroom in our new premises. More on this soon.

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Hello Aussie!

As some of you know we have been selling into Australia for the last couple of years. We started with a couple of Sales people in a couple of states but we found that was hard to sustain.  It really requires a large distributor or myself to reside in Australia to make it work. Well that is my opinion. 

Anyhow Pre covid I met up with a key Distributor in Australia (who in fact lives down the road from my inlaws - which is handy) who have recently signed both brands. www.munchcupboard.com and www.nilproducts.com.  This is very exciting for us. Especially with the state of the world and the growing border policy between New Zealand and Australia.  It is really the right time to grow that export market.

She is in fact taking on our full range which is very unheard of as many Distributors pick at ranges and that can hinder a brand overall.  By working closely with her needs we have fined tuned our ranges more specifically which has really helped our brand focus.  Our Munch range is only kitchenware and something we will continue to develop. You will find a number of new products are due out over the next couple of months..

As for our nil brand we are only offering that brand to Australia as our nil harm beauty brand.  A very focused ethical brand.  We have new amazing fresh clean unique packaging coming out over the next couple of weeks.

Covid19 has given us a lot of opportunities that we have grabbed and pivoted towards. However many of the opportunities we have been working on for sometime but they seem to have grown recently. Although I am still mindful that the world still has a lot to deal with and there will be no business as usual for sometime.  So I am still planning for the worst and hoping for the best!!

Take care

Anna 

 

 

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Firstly thank you to all our amazing followers who answered our brand survey back in February. Just before the world started changing.... 

As you know in March/April our total focus was on making 10,000's of reusable facemasks so it has not been till now that we have had time to get back to business as normal. Well the new normal as everyone says.

On the brand survey we asked questions like what did the brand mean to you.  What you liked and did not like about the brand.  What did it represent etc.  Overall many of you said that you thought Munch was just a kiddie brand. Over the last few years we have been selling just as many kiddie lines as we have main product lines. So we needed to widen the brand with the look and feel. And this is exactly what we did.

The other main comment was that the logo did not show off the sustainability of the brand which is the main focus for the whole of the business.  The logo was designed for our first product being a baby cookbook, almost 7 years ago. So it was not surprising that the logo did not now reflect what the brand was about.  So we have fixed that too.

What you all liked was the colourful nature of the brand and the painterly graphical look which we are keeping.  You also said more advertising and more of Anna, which we are working on.

I am pleased to show you our new logo that will be going up on many online sites and throughout our products.  I hope you like it as I do!!

For me it is a more grown up brand image (which we are now), it links the sustainability focus clearly and still keeps our playful nature with the painterly look and the little bite of the strawberry.  The bite also links the word munch with a visual and to food.  And it is not too far from our original brand so that you all still recognize us in the busy world of many brands.

Stay safe and thank you.

Anna xx

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What a whirlwind of events.  A change in how we view our world, our health and our businesses.  It still makes me very sad that my children are experiencing a global pandemic.  I am from a generation that has been so lucky with no world wars, reasonable economy and no world wide disasters.  Our grandparents lived through world wars and the depression.  They seemed to have come out of fine and I am sure we all will as well.  But it is very hard to see our world change so dramatically in such a short space of time.

Yes I am proud to be a New Zealander and how we have managed this terrible virus in our backyard.  So far so good. But I still worry whether there will ever be a vaccine but I do hope we will find an antibody and at least stamp out what we can. I also worry for the economic ramifications of what is happening around us and how that will effect relationships, mental health and our society as a whole.  I do unfortunately think there is going to be hard times ahead for many over the next couple of years.

Well, I am going to try my damnedest to make sure I keep as many people busy and employed as I am capable of doing.  This is my drive, my mission for my greater community.  By doing this, I believe we will help those people to stay mentally fit, contribute to their family income and be proud of being part of something exciting. As a business owner, it is my duty to do this and it is my duty to find new exciting ways to ensure the longevity of a business that I have thrown my heart and sole into. One that I am very proud off and one that I do not want to lose.

So to keep my people busy and employed we pivoted (super quickly) to making NZ made cloth filtrated reusable masks.  To this day, I have never launched a product as quickly as I did this one.  We had the design, retail packaging, production, legals etc all done and dusted within 48 hours!  Although like all our products we are always fine tuning as we go along.

However it has been the hardest product that I have ever launched, there has been a lot of sweat and tears over this one.  However I feel very lucky to have an amazing Production Manager who has been incredible. The main reason is that I feel a strong responsibility to ensure that we are helping and not hindering health matters. So for me, it is so important to make sure we are saying the right things, we are checking carefully all the claims by our Suppliers and at the same time looking to see what other people are doing in this space.  I suppose it is my legal background coming into play and my sense of community responsibility.

Is it weird seeing people wearing masks and making them? Absolutely yes. Sometimes I think about it and it makes me very sad to think we need such a thing. It also took a long time to convince my Sales team that this is something we ought to do.  But then other times I think, I am so proud to be producing over 1000 a week (and growing dramatically) and keeping at least 10 sewers busy. If we are going to have to wear such things, lets make it bright and fun. AND that is what Munch is about.  So this little project #THE GOOD FACE MASK is one that I would never have thought we would be doing but one that I feel we are in fact doing our little bit to help New Zealand in so many ways.  We are doing our little bit.  We cannot save everyone and we cannot be global right now but we can do our bit.

Take are everyone xxx

You will find out masks available on our website, Farmers, Healthpost, Oncit, Farro Fresh, Foodstuffs AND many more places. If your favourite store does not have #THE GOODFACE MASK then just ask and tell them to email us.

 

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Thinking of you initiative.

We are so proud to one of the below amazing New Zealand brands to gift product to the New Zealand Healthcare front line workers.  In total we contributed together $250,000 worth of products.  It was also supported by Export NZ and New Zealand Food Grocery Council.

Hundreds of care packs were delivered to many hospitals throughout New Zealand. Grins staff delivered many of these parcels directly to the hospital staff.  One of the Grin team said the following:

 It truly made my day and makes me believe it is true blessing that we have the chance to make contribution when we can (Tara CEO Grin):

 “Today we delivered another 150 care bags to the ICU and ED staff at Auckland hospital. We were truly humbled when they thanked us for the small act of just thinking about them. They have the same fears and anxiety as everyone else but they have to face the hard realities of Covid 19 every day. For them to know that they are appreciated and that there are businesses working together to give them a small gift has far greater value and any of the products they received today. When you witness the massive positive impact of this small gesture, you know how blessed we are to be able to give back. We can see the good that has been created and I only wish we could tell more people about it to encourage all New Zealander’s (businesses and individuals) to take care of each other and that we can get through this together. By getting this message out as much as we can we hope to let all frontline workers know they aren’t forgotten and to inspire others to help those in need in any way they can.”

I totally agree and I am so proud to have been part of this amazing gifting initiative. I think it is important to remember everyone (and that is everyone) has the same fears and anxiety around Covid19 and if we can find ways to be kind, this is the least we can do.

Take care and be kind.

Anna x

PS below is a very primitive but meaningful video I did for this initiative. I love the wiri wand.....

 

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