Diane Stanbra is the Founder of Rescued and Picnic Box and a coaching alumni.
This Kiwi Business Story is based on a podcast from 8 September 2022 and all figures and facts quoted are from that time. You can enjoy the complete podcast here.
Tell us about your business journey?
Like so many other businesses, Covid literally just annihilated Picnic Box in Australia and New Zealand. We were very much large event focused; travel, tourism – all the markets that were just decimated.
It was really a case of once I got my head round that there was literally nothing I could do. We tried numerous things to keep the business going but we couldn't and there was nothing we could do about it.
So once I got my head around that, I just took some time off, reconnected with friends and family and then started thinking, ‘what next’? In 2021, Countdown put out a Kete business accelerator programme and they were looking for up to five businesses to support getting products on shelf.
So I thought ‘well, this is perfect’. Rescued had been on my to-do list for a couple of years and I thought this is a great opportunity to give me something to do, so we started the journey of Rescued.
What does Rescued do?
Food is a massive passion. I come from a big foodie family. [We have] all this food which is perfectly edible, but it just doesn't make the grade. I'd seen chutneys and jams and everything being made from produce and I looked to find something in New Zealand but I couldn't find anything.
We were trying to find a solution for bread because it's the biggest wasted food globally… and then we realised most of the surplus food is supermarket sliced loaves… it's been a huge amount of research and development with process engineers and food scientists, nailing down how we get that process scaled for what we call our secret ingredient, which is rescued bread flour.
So we've developed all of these [bread flour based] baking mixes (and more) to give a base for people to be able to add their own extra ingredients in as well.
We also add other rescue components into the baking mixes and we rescue gin botanicals from Good George, and they also feature in our baking mixes alongside rescued herbs.
How did you hear about The Icehouse?
This is going back 10 years now, when Picnic Box had just started and I realised pretty quickly that I needed some help. A desperate call to BNZ just happened to get me on the last spot on what was then The Hatchery Programme, a three-month course condensed into two days. I did that and met the amazing Carollyn Chaplin who from day one has been one of our biggest fans… and I recently reengaged with her about Rescued and she's been a great sounding board for other crazy ideas I've had in the meantime!
What did your coaching arrangement look like?
We were on a monthly programme, with actions that I would work on in the meantime, but always knowing that, at any time, I had support at the end of the phone, or email. If something came up, then I just never thought twice about reaching out and getting advice and support.
We had to be very clear in our goals - so entering and winning the Best Emerging Business at the Westpac Business Awards North in 2015 was a very great moment as well. It seems like a long time ago now!
What is your sense of purpose?
At the end of the day our purpose is to prevent food waste. We're so confident in the solution that we have and the extent of the possibilities, and based on what we've done so far, we know we can do it – zero waste, profitably, sustainably and scalable. We can now get there and get everyone on board and working with us, because I think we can do some pretty awesome things.