NZ Fresh Cuts History

Since our establishment in 1980 the NZ Fresh Cuts group of companies has evolved from a small family owned company supplying health food stores, to New Zealand’s dominant provider of premium fresh sprouts, salad greens, vegetable mixes, and baby peeled carrots. We have also recently introduced salad condiments and hemp seed oil to our line and developed quality brands for both the culinary and skin care markets. Some of our key milestones include:

  • Original company The Sprout House, owned by a Family Trust, was formed in 1980 to produce and market sprouted seeds and beans to health food retailers.
  • Sun Sprout Limited was incorporated as a company in 1984 and introduced the Sprout Man brand as a cartoon character.
  • Sun Sprout successfully established sprouts as a mainstream product in 1990 by installing refrigerated cabinets in Woolworths and Big Fresh supermarkets throughout New Zealand.
  • By mirroring a baby leaf growing system introduced from Vitacress in the UK, Sun Sprout was the first to introduce baby leaf salads in a trial Woolworths store in 1994.
  • The project was a failure as New Zealanders were not yet ready to make the leap away from traditional iceberg lettuce salads and the project was canned in 1996.
  • In 1997 Sun Sprout was sold.
  • In the same year the Family Trust formed a new company called Fraisbon Foods Ltd, which was set up to process and market baby peeled carrots to the New Zealand market under the Farmer Bill’s brand. Baby peeled carrots have led produce growth in the USA for more than a decade only to be surpassed by bagged salads in just the last few years.
  • In 2000 Fraisbon Foods set up farms to once again produce and market baby leaf salads to New Zealand supermarkets. This time it was a success.
  • In May 2004 the Family Trust brought back Sun Sprout Ltd and formed a dedicated growing and processing company, NZ Fresh Cuts Ltd (NZFC). NZFC does not own any brands, as its purpose is to grow and process high quality salads and sprouts using state of the art systems.
  • With the establishment of NZFC, Fraisbon Foods Ltd and Sun Sprout Ltd were restructured to concentrate on marketing, sales, customer management and the development of innovative solutions for the fresh cut market. Sun Sprout also took over the marketing of Farmer Bill’s Baby Peeled Carrots.
  • In 2005 New Hemisphere Ltd was formed as a joint venture with South Island-based Oil Seed Extractions Ltd to drive product development and marketing for quality New Zealand hemp seed oil.
  • Dashboard Diner Ltd was also established in 2005 to market fresh cut innovations to the growing Grab & Go market, via the route trade. Salad Shakes® were launched to the market in November 2005.
  • In February 2006 NZFC took over the management of the company’s previously contract-managed 80-hectare farm in Rangiriri and developed the property into a model farm based on the best farm systems worldwide.
  • Salad Shakes® - Greek Taverna won two gold medals at the 2006 Massey University Food Awards. The innovative grab and go salad impressed the judges with its unique packaging and café-quality taste and was awarded first prize in two categories, FMCG Meal Solutions and the Crop & Food Research Fruit & Vegetable Award.