Real Eating Awesome Living was created by two friends who share a love for the outdoors and healthy eating. Alley Davey and Anne Lowerson work together to produce premium artisan products for their customers.
What is your company background, how did you start the business?
The company started in 2015 by Ally Davey and Anne Lowerson who share a passion for the outdoors, healthy eating and inspired living. Our concept is simple; we believe fueling your body naturally is vital in one’s physical, emotional and mental well-being. Our mission is to produce premium artisanal products that make a difference to one’s well-being. Our products celebrate food as medicine by letting natural ingredients be natural and reducing as much food waste and processing as we can.
What are the current product range and variants and how do these products stand out in the market?
Currently, we have two flavours of our Real Vegetable Wraps on the market; Kumara & Kawakawa and Beetroot & Ginger.
Our Real Vegetable Wraps are made from cosmetically-challenged organic vegetables. These are ones that are normally rejected, dumped because they don’t look symmetrical or are a little bigger than usual or may not be aesthetically pleasing – but we know that they taste amazing!
The wraps were created for consumers that are time poor, want to have something healthy to snack on while avoiding grains, gluten and dairy. Our wraps are vegan and paleo friendly, gluten, grain, wheat and dairy free. They also have no additives or preservatives. We use wild harvested and other local ingredients such as kawakawa (a traditional Maori herb), ginger, turmeric and other herbs to enhance the functional properties of our products. Onions are a core ingredient as they are such great anti-inflammatory and are overlooked for their medicinal properties.
The Real Wraps can be used as a bread alternative. Just add your favourite topping. They compliment pestos, dips and pate’s amazingly well. They can also be used as a vegetable soup by adding some stock to them and vegetables, or they taste great torn into strips and fried with eggs. The Real Wraps are very versatile.
Has there been any recent company news?
We have just launched into the South Island – in Piko (Christchurch), Raeward Fresh (Queenstown) and are quickly expanding into new stores throughout the country. We have more and more cafe’s and food service contacting us, and we see a large growth area in the hospitality sector. Demand is high, and we are (like most new business) trying to keep up with the demand and keep our quality high.
What are the plans for the business moving forward, is there any expansion on the horizon?
We have some other products in the pipeline being developed which are ready to be tested in the market. We think our customers will love them. We are currently looking to set up our own production facility to scale production and interest from offshore distributors, and give us the flexibility to scale for our demand. As we develop the relationship with our growers we are trying to also derive new production methods and be able to optimise getting the product to market and maximising the product wastage. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely rewarding when we get the feedback from consumers once they taste the product.
Where are your products currently available to buy, and are you looking at or wanting to expand your availability?
We have around 40 stockists nationwide. Our largest stores being; Harvest Wholefoods (Auckland), Huckleberry (Auckland), Scarecrow (Auckland), The Green Grocer (Thames) , Goodness Grocer (Pukekohe), Wild Earth (Tauranga), Be Organics (Mount Maunganui), Capers (Rotorua), Village Organics (Hamilton) Commonsense Organics (Auckland & Wellington).
We are concentrating our distribution in key areas where customers are demanding stock. We often get retailers calling us asking if they can stock us as a customer has come in, purchased the product from another store and are requesting they can buy at their local store. We listen to our customers first and grow our distribution accordingly.
