Business Stories # 1 - Homemade with Love
Te Horo Foods
Tasting just like your nana’s homemade jam is what makes Te Horo Foods jam so unique - it actually is homemade, 100%
natural jam.
Te Horo Foods is located on the Kapiti Coast just north of Wellington and sits on a 100 acre block that boasts the largest blackberry
crop in the country. Kate and Tim Gibbs run the family’s Stanmore Farm which produces pears, blackberries, and of course
makes jam!
Making jam wasn’t in the original plan for the farm but after a surfeit of berries one year they started making jam for
the Anathoth brand until that business changed ownership. Once that contract ended Kate and Tim then decided to make jam
for their own business, staying true their ethos of all natural 100% New Zealand fruit, no preservatives or additives,
and handmade.
“It’s a very niche market” says Kate, “No other commercial jam company in New Zealand is making a handmade product with
100% New Zealand fruit”. The jam is all made onsite at the Stanmore Farm with locally sourced fruit. “We grow the
blackberries here ourselves. The rest we buy in from growers with long term contracts around New Zealand such as citrus
from Gisborne, plums from Hawkes Bay, and raspberries from Nelson” says Kate.
All of Te Horo jams are handmade with the cooks stirring each jam pan by hand, just the way your grandmother does. “It’s
the hand stirring of small batches and the top quality fruit that goes into each pot that gives Te Horo jams that
fantastic taste” says Kate. It takes years to become a good jam cook and the cooks at Te Horo jam bring a lifetime of
experience and passion to the table giving Te Horo jam its unique homemade feel.
Through working with Grow Wellington, Te Horo Foods have received funding from MBIE Science and Innovation arm (MSI) to
develop a blackberry powder in an effort to produce more value out of their crops. “The blackberry powder is full of
antioxidants that have amazing health benefits” says Kate. “After my own run-in with cancer I was looking for a
nutritional supplement that was not made from artificial ingredients and that was grown and made here in New Zealand. I
sprinkle the blackberry powder on my cereal every morning and have yummy berry smoothies.”
Te Horo Jam is stocked in fine food stores around New Zealand including Moore Wilsons, Nosh and Farro. “Caffé L’affare
uses it in their café, as does Martha’s pantry for their high teas! Wellington is currently our biggest market” says
Kate. The famous jam is also exported to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Singapore and Malaysia.
“Grow Wellington have just been great”, says Kate. “The business growth managers are very helpful and they have put us
in touch with MBIE Science and Innovation arm (MSI) for funding and NZTE for their voucher schemes. We are currently
doing a marketing project for the health products thanks to the vouchers we have received from NZTE. We have also been
introduced to an array of people through Grow Wellington’s extensive business network and are featured on their Food & Beverage Database.”
Kate and Tim have proved that homemade jam need not consume hours of your time, or be left to nana. Te Horo jam can be
found made with the same ingredients and attention to detail on the supermarket shelf, and with love put into each and
every pot. It’s been a recipe for great business.
ENDS