Coming off the back of two big wins in the Australian meat processing industry, Woodward Foods is looking to Asia for the next phase of its company’s evolution.
That it won the Australian Food Awards best prime lamb and not a week later best wholesaler in Queensland says the company is ticking boxes – not only do customers value the product, but so too those who sell it.
That it was recognised as Queensland’s best wholesaler is testimony to its supply chain, Woodward Foods works out of Swan Hill, Victoria, a full 1500 kilometres from Brisbane.
Woodward Foods has been servicing the domestic Australian market for 30 years, shipping to retail butchers in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
The company began in 1965, when founder Robert Woodward was a buyer for large abattoir operations.
But realising the vagaries of selling to wholesalers he decided to become a wholesaler himself.
And so he began supplying butcheries in Sydney and Melbourne.
Then in 1985, with the Swan Hill abattoir in receivership, a group of butchers approached Robert Woodward, asking if he could bail the operation out.
He did, with a view to exporting processed meat products.
Pan forward 20 years and Woodward Foods was awarded its export licence in 2015.
At the moment it exports prime lamb to the Middle East, but like others its eyes are on Asia, and particularly China. Chief executive Chris Hadzilias says Woodward Foods is now primed to see just how far Robert Woodward’s vision can go.
“In Australia we tend to take for granted the quality and safety of our food.
“This is not the case in many countries around the world, especially Asia.
“I believe there is a particular opportunity to penetrate the Asian market,” he says.
“The main point of difference that not a lot of the other meat processors have is that we have a very, very strong family connection.” And that is where branding and knowledge of the product will reap harvest for Woodward Foods.
Marketing will be key to brand acknowledgement and much of the hard work when it comes to awareness of food quality has already been done.
“Australia has a clean, green image, we have had good agricultural quarantine practices for many years,” said Mr Hadzilias.
It is that family thread through the business that the Woodwards hope will strike a chord in Asia.
“It’s a family business with typical rural family values,” says Mr Hadzilias.
“Consumers these days more and more not only want to see the product, they want to know where it comes from and the values in the supply chain that ensure their safety and security.
“Was it a planned strategy from day one – no – but when the opportunity came up he (Robert) decided to roll the dice, as farmers and rural people do,” he said.
“There was a lot more involved than he initially thought, but that is always the way with meat processing in rural communities.
“It’s not the biggest plant in the world, but it’s not insignificant either, it employs a couple of hundred people.”
But Mr Hadzilias emphasised the family’s nature of approach.
“The people involved, we’re conservative by nature and we try not to rush into things we don’t understand very well. It might take a little longer doing it that way, but we’ll get to where we want to go faster.
“It’s a whole new world of marketing and commercial risk and so we need to understand what they are and manage it internally,” he said. He said despite much of the product originating from a beautiful part of Victoria “beautiful and pristine”, that was only half of the story.
“We want to market our product as a Woodward offering, a major part of the story is what Robert and his family and management bring to that product.
“We think that’s a better way to appeal to our overseas and export customers, because that’s what they’re looking for.
“They need to understand not just the place it comes from, but the values the people apply to that supply chain. That’s the phase we’re really in now,” said Mr Hadzilias.
“I’ve had the experience of living and working in China for three odd years and you don’t have to sell the benefits of food safety and security to Chinese consumers, it is in fact top of mind for them.
“What you have to do is link that food safety requirement to your brand.”
He said because Australia is renowned for its ethical practices the company is at a good starting point.
“What we need to do is link it all together for consumers in China,” he said.
Mr Hadzilias said to this point there was not a lot of foreign product on the Chinese market that had managed to properly set its place as a brand.
“Meat and a lot of other produce that has been sold in China has merely been traded.
“What we’re trying to do is market our offering, trade our offering and that will take us a little bit longer.
“But we believe in the long run our brand will have particular significance to Chinese consumers,” Mr Hadzilias said