Prolife Foods in the student spotlight

Hamilton-based Prolife Foods has grown substantially to become a major player in bulk bin foods and snack products in New Zealand. Third year students from Waikato University Management School were asked to come up with a strategy for the business to grow even further.

Expand across the ditch

Four teams, from a total of 22, went head to head in the B Semester case competition final putting their cases before a panel of judges. The winning team, calling themselves PRIME, proposed expansion into Australia.

“We were aware that bulk bins are less popular in Australian supermarkets than they are in New Zealand,” says PRIME team member Alex O’Reilly. “So we felt Prolife could take advantage of that. And then we discovered that Coles in Australia were sponsors of TV’s MasterChef which provided an obvious way to market Prolife products.”

Just as Alison Holst is the face of Prolife in New World supermarkets in New Zealand, PRIME proposed using Australian high profile chef and food writer Donna Hay across the Tasman.

Hard work, long hours

Alex O’Reilly says the team worked hard for their win. “We did a lot of research, ringing businesses to get good information about transport and logistics and the costs associated with exporting. And we put in a lot of hours. I’ve never had so many late nights and 6am starts in my life.”

Team member Kevin Sequeira is an international student from India. The former merchant seaman says they decided to devise a strategy that was do-able, that played to Prolife’s existing strengths, rather than developing a strategy that deviated too far from the its core competencies. The other team members were James Chapman, Sascha Tschirky and Luke Smith.

Other strategies in the competition proposed developing a range of cereals to add to the Mother Earth brand, expanding bulk bins into Australia, and growing the company through exporting Donovan’s chocolates to Australia and Hong Kong.

What the judges said

The teams were all judged on a comprehensive written report, their 10-minute presentations and a series of questions from the judges.

Prolife Foods CEO Andrew Smith was one of the judges and says he was impressed by the skills of the four teams. “Their analysis, their logic, the marketing arguments – everything we’d talk about in our business - they talked about. We’ve already begun our expansion into Australia, so it was good to see the students come up with that strategy too.”

The B semester case competition is sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers and joining Andrew Smith on the judging panel were Mark McCabe of PWC, and Glen Miller, owner of Pak’n’Save Mill Street.