Gluten-free company Venerdi was established 14 years ago and today remains a family owned and operated business. CEO, Tim Grainger’s grandfather, was successful in curing the health ailments of his dairy cows by focussing his fertilising regime on the nutrients his animals needed. Year’s later the family have moved to learning and developing recipes that are best for humans. The team spoke to Tim about how they continue to put into practice their best ideas around improving consumer health by offering nutritious foods.
What is your current product range?
“We make three product ranges. This includes our high fibre soft sandwich bread called Gluten Freedom, an artisan, certified organic traditional sourdough toast bread called Venerdi and a grain-free Paleo bread made from tapioca, eggs, almonds and coconut flour called, Venerdi Paleo. Each range has a few flavours, and we also make a range of small goods including pizza bases, buns and pita bread.”
What’s new with Venerdi?
“Our most exciting news is that this June we had our first production run of Paleo crackers that are a nutrient dense super food posing as a savoury snack. It has been over a year in development; time has gone into working with suppliers to source the best ingredients and to design the best nutrition and flavour profiles. Now it’s a great feeling to have the first pallet in the air heading for Melbourne while we are demonstrating at food shows here in NZ. We are proud that a few organic shops have picked up this product already.”
Plans for the business?
“The plan is to spread the word with the healthiest bread we can make. We have a lot of integrity in our products and are proud to share them with people all over the world. In a month I will be having meetings in the USA with importers regarding some of our newest and best products. Not only are our products unique to Australasia but also in America.”
Where can you buy Venerdi?
“Currently, most of our products are available in health food stores and supermarkets. We also have some commercial customers from pizza outlets to cafes using our pizza bases, buns and bread. We supply over 500 health food stores in Australia as well as the foodservice sector and with the new snack cracker we hope to sell in a lot more convenience locations.”
