Passion for the pancake has turned into sweet success for a Belgian couple who chose a provincial city on the other side of the world to set up life and business.
Marcel Naenan and Ingrid Vercammen established their authentic Belgian-style baking company Van Dyck Fine Foods in New Plymouth in 2000, and since then the business has gone from strength to strength.
It now has a staff of more than 40, produces 18,000 pancakes an hour, distributes throughout New Zealand, has established a growing export market, and won a number of business awards.
And it all started with a chance encounter. Ingrid and Marcel, an engineer in Belgium who sold baking machines and had invented a pancake maker, met Taranaki’s own famous baker Noel Yarrow at an international trade fair in Germany. The trio got talking and the seeds were sown.
The couple then visited New Zealand as tourists and stopped in on Noel at his Manaia bakery, who suggested they make some pancakes in Taranaki as a trial. Noel helped with distribution to New Plymouth companies, who were impressed with the samples.
“From there they decided to emigrate and within three days they found a property, found a builder, set a house design, and went back to Belgium to sell up and come here,” says Van Dyck Fine Foods chief executive Natalie Innes.
They lived on the premises and developed the plant out the back, with Marcel using his skills to make the manufacturing equipment.
“It was a very modern, technical operation – very forward thinking to build a highly automated plant that was very volume driven,” says Natalie. “They also included freezing capabilities, which was an advantage as the competition was making products to be sold fresh.”
Van Dyck Fine Foods now makes a variety of plain and flavoured pancakes, petite pancakes (pikelets), and crepes. It contract packs its products for other companies and also retails under its own brand, Marcel’s Pancakes.
“We have a lot of the New Zealand market – that’s our base business – and we export to Asia and Australia, and are always looking at further opportunities,” says Natalie.
In recent years, the company has had rapid growth, which Natalie attributes to the company’s extremely high internationally audited production standards, the ability to bring in new skills and systems to help growth, and the development and loyalty of staff, many who have been with the business since the start.
“We’re passionate about making quality, authentic products, using quality ingredients, and I’m really proud we have people who love working here and that we train and grow our people.”
Van Dyck’s, which in 2015 was named the supreme winner at the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards, is part of a developing food production sector in Taranaki.
And Natalie believes the reputation is building.