by Peter Barcaly
Wanaka resident, Olivia Nicol, is a passionate enthusiast for enabling change in our eating habits. Still, she’s equally aware that when people make that change and become more plant-centred, they’re often faced with a lack of choice in café cabinets around New Zealand.
About a year ago, she decided to refocus her business, Balance Me, and began producing frozen plant-based options that they could distribute nationally. In previous years, the business was centred on ready-made meals delivered directly to customers’ homes.
“In August last year, we put a pause to that, and we are now focusing solely on a business-to-business, where we are supporting cafes and restaurants to make sure that they have an inclusive menu and they can have something on their menu for everyone.
“Our main focus is our three hero products. We have our chickpea tofu, which is perfect for cafes and restaurants, and it’s like a menu builder item, or we have our chickpea spinach rolls and our sausage rolls, which are cafe cabinet-ready-to-eat items.
“The reason we chose to do this was because we actually saw the biggest problem for chefs and cafes was that they had so many new diets and so many new problems and requests coming into the kitchen that they couldn’t keep up.
“Because plant-based eaters are a small selection of the New Zealand population, a lot of cafes and restaurants have actually just decided: Oh, it doesn’t matter. We’re not going to offer them something.”
She says many of them haven’t realised that they’re not just losing the plant-based eater, but they’re losing the plant-based eater and all of their friends. Delving deeper, she says …
There’s another aspect Olivia is keen to point out.
“The biggest thing we’re finding is that lots of people who aren’t plant-based eaters still sometimes are plant-forward. So, they go in and look in the cabinet, and they are like, I don’t want a meaty sausage roll. I don’t want the fake bacon and egg sandwich. I want something lighter, something that makes me feel better – that’s where the sausage-less roll comes in.”
But with café and restaurant owners themselves, the commercial conversation can still be challenging, she says.
BalanceMe initially launched as an in-home meal preparation private chef service. The company’s primary goal was to increase families’ dietary diversity, specifically targeting the consumption of 30 different plant varieties per week. While not exclusively plant-based, BalanceMe positions itself as a gut health company, focusing on educating customers about the importance of gut health and its connection to overall well-being.
The business name was chosen after extensive consideration. Olivia explained that the name reflects both her personal health journey and creates a connection with customers, as it can be interpreted as “Balance Me” from the customer’s perspective when they interact with the business.
