New Zealand owned Pic’s Peanut Butter has added Woolworths to its portfolio of stockists.
More than 900 Woolworths supermarkets nationwide are now stocking Pic’s Crunchy and Smooth 380g peanut butter jars.
“We’ve set up a second factory to ensure we meet demand,” said Pic Picot, owner of Pic’s Peanut Butter.
“It has meant we’ve been able to increase our staff numbers from 17 to 25 full-timers in the last twelve months. We have had tremendous support from our home community in Nelson, and it has been neat to be able to provide a few more jobs,” Picot said.
“Australians love the fact that we Kiwis use their peanuts. It’s not as if we are an Australian company loyally using local nuts. We could be buying our nuts from anywhere, but we use hi-oleic Australian nuts because they have an extraordinarily rich flavour, they never go rancid, and they have exceptional nutritional properties. Our Aussie customers really respond to that.”
The Woolworths agreement is the latest in a string of export successes for the company. Picot’s sister, Judy Picot, an Australian resident, started selling the product to Australians by mail order in 2011, which quickly led to an expansion into specialty stores and independent supermarkets, before Pic’s was picked up by Coles in November 2014.
Pic’s is increasingly in demand in other countries too, with retail stockists in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and the US. It is also shipped by mail order to customers all over the world.
Pic’s Peanut Butter earned Cuisine magazine’s Artisan Food of the Year Award in 2010 and was a double finalist in the 2015 NZ Food Awards. The company has featured in the Deloitte’s Fast 50 three years in a row, and Pic was one of ten finalists for EY (Ernst & Young’s) Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2014.
