Third time lucky
Just over a month before this issue appeared, Christoph and Monique Sonntag were feeling tired but elated. On Sunday 16 September, the first Mobile Shop of their new venture, La Pasteria, appeared at the annual Spring Fair of the Motueka Rudolf Steiner School to an enthusiastic reception.
"Things went very well," Christoph reported. "The customers liked all of the products and we donated the full turnover of the day to the School, because we believe that if you give generously first then it comes back later to you. After we got home that day though, Monique said she felt like sleeping for a month! It's been a huge effort. I felt pretty much the same."
The debut of the La Pasteria range of traditional Italian fresh pasta, hot pasta meals and traditional pasta sauces was the culmination of months of preparation and planning for the couple, including the custom design and manufacture of a Mobile Shop by a specialised local engineer, with logos, visual branding and high-impact signage for the Mobile Shop and its towing vehicle completed by Andy Lowe of local company Imagecreators.
After a wait of 76 working days (instead of the usual 20), the Sonntags gained building consent for a fully-equipped commercial kitchen on their 0.8-hectare Motueka property, capable of producing 85kg of fresh pasta an hour. The couple also imported a $70,000-plus pasta roller and extrusion machine and accessories from Italy which serve as a linchpin of the new business. The path towards launch also literally included a journey to Italy, where as part of the sale agreement and at the manufacturer's expense, Christoph learned to maintain the pasta machine - something of a necessity when there are 16-18 security microswitches and you are 18,000 kilometres away from the nearest service personnel.
"Little did I imagine when we immigrated from Switzerland in 1998 that I would become a 'Pasta Engineer!"' Christoph says.
Viva Pasta!
As is often the case with businesses started by immigrants, La Pasteria salutes the Sonntags' European past as much as it enriches the New Zealand present. After 13 years in the highly competitive telecoms business, with 35 employees and retail outlets across Switzerland, the Sonntags left their home in the city of Basel to start a new life here.
Before they left Europe, they had spent much time in the Piedmont region of Italy where they enjoyed its superlative pasta cuisine. As enthusiastic diners and cooks, they realised immediately once they tasted New Zealand fresh pasta products that there was a niche for a quality, organic alternative using authentic flours and recipes from Europe.
The Nelson and Motueka area offered an immediate catchment of 100,000 people, many of whom are ingredients- conscious food lovers, with the added opportunity to sell to local restaurants. The Sonntags also consider that there are downstream possibilities for national franchising and wholesaling. "There are lots of opportunities," says Christoph.
"The key idea with La Pasteria," he says, "is to bring top quality, freshly-made, real Italian pasta to customers in the street and at events and shows." The initial offerings, in true Italian style, include white, green and red spaghettis, tagliatelle, taglioni, spirelli and ravioli with a variety of fillings, served with tomato, Bolognese, ala Panna, mushroom and seasonal sauces.
Another contemporary European touch is that the Sonntags want their ingredients to be organic whenever possible; the initial product range offered last month also included variants made using quinoa and spelt flour. The couple have a source of organic free range eggs (5-10 are required to make each kilo of pasta) and would love to find a local supplier of organic Parmesan for the moment it's available only from Italy by the full container load!
Third time lucky
Delays this year aside, with obtaining the building consent and completing the Mobile Shops and signage, La Pasteria itself took a while to come to fruition. It's actually the Sonntags third business idea since their arrival: an initial plan to produce top-end designer floor rugs was sunk before inception by red tape and yarn supply problems. A subsequent plan to take over an existing "Cheeserie" came up against MAF regulations which were going to cost at least $50,000 a year with laboratory and other charges.
In comparison, says Christoph, La Pasteria has been a relatively smooth ride. It also helps, he acknowledges, that the couple have considerable business experience behind them and more financial resources than many start-up enterprises.
"Even so," Christoph says, "starting a new business is always an anxious time. You've done your homework, you've made the investment," - some of the specially-made moulds the Sonntags have imported for making ravioli in round, full moon, mezzaluna (half moon) and triangular shapes cost up to $4,000 each - "and you've worked and are working as hard as you can. After that you can only wait to see the response."
Monique puts things even more directly. "For several weeks leading up to the launch everything revolved around the venture. We ate, slept, dreamt and worried about making pasta. I lost 5kg in a month. This venture is our whole life at the moment."
Now that the pre-launch nerves have faded, the company will soon be looking to take on staff to help with production and as far as possible will be run on sustainable lines. In July each year, for instance, La Pasteria will close for one month because that is when the hens who supply organic free range eggs have their winter rest! ANZ InBusiness will be following the Sonntags' progress and will report in a few issues' time.
This article appears courtesy of ANZ inbusiness magazine. 29.01.2008
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