The secrets of a successful export business? Consistency, marketing and good research for starters.
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Entrepreneur: John Menegazzo, Managing Director
Company: Fresh Select (Australia) Pty Ltd
Business type: Selection, storage and distribution of fresh vegetables
Founded: 1985 as Marvilla; 1998 merged with Balaid to form Fresh Select (Aust)
Turnover: $10M - $50M
Head office: Werribee South, Victoria
Contact details: +61 3 9742 1519
The Fresh Select Story
Australia produces enough fresh food for about 40 million people, double its population of 20 million. About half the country’s food production is exported.
The sales of John Menegazzo’s wholesale fresh-vegetable distribution business, Fresh Select, almost exactly fit this market profile: 55% of Fresh Select’s product goes to the domestic Australian market - supplying Coles supermarkets with broccoli, cauliflower and lettuce year round; the other 45% goes overseas to Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and the Middle East.
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Key learning points:
- Customer relationships - Potential customers need to see your name and your product, but there is no substitute for face-to-face contact with them.
- Market research - Do your homework properly, but remember that market research will not guarantee success.
- Consistency - Be consistent in your pricing, quality and supply. This tells customers that you are committed to giving them what they want.
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Menegazzo says the fresh food industry is in a transition period. “We have two options. Either a lot of people have to get out of this industry for the others to survive or we have to find ways to encourage people to export.”
Fresh Select won the 2001 Wyndham Business Awards (Agriculture & Agribusiness), a victory which testifies to the company capabilities in marketing, market research, pricing, quality and supply.
Menegazzo believes in aggressive marketing - or as he puts it “putting your face in front of people”. He will use any method that gets him in front of his customer; visiting potential customers at their premises, inviting them to his, faxing them some information, or just encouraging them to look at the Fresh select website, www.freshselect.com.au.
He says: “It’s not just sitting here and making a call. It’s getting our name and our product in front of people’s faces and saying ‘Give us a go’. If we can pick up a potentially good customer overseas, we will go and visit them in their market. We go overseas a couple of times a year to visit our existing customers. We have no hesitation in visiting prospective customers in new countries.”
However, Menegazzo warns that visiting potential customers is just the start. Would-be exporters must do their homework properly. He says: “People are different overseas. You have got the South-East Asian customer who is completely different from the Middle East customer so you have got to be aware of each country’s requirements. You have got to see what they want, see what is already there, see what the competition is providing, whether it be European or South American competition - and then see if you can develop a niche market around that. You have got to do all your homework and find all this out.”
Menegazzo advises would-be exporters to be cautious. Excellent market research can help avoid some of the pitfalls on the rocky export pathway. Many problems are the result of a poor attitude to customer commitment.
He says: “If you do get your leg in and you do start, you have got to focus yourself and say ‘I am going to give that customer what he wants’. You have got to be consistent in your pricing, in your quality and in your supply. If you are consistent in those three areas, you will succeed. But if you think: ‘OK, I’m going to supply him this week because I’ve got a glut but next week I’m going to be short in the local market and it’s going to be better so I will leave him out and I’ll go to the local market’ – if you have got that attitude, you are wasting your time.”
Fresh Select’s commitment to quality is evident in its continuous monitoring of more than a dozen contract growers in three States. Menegazzo’s partner, John Said, regularly visits growers in Victoria, Tasmania and Queensland to check product against customers’ specifications for size and shape. He also advises growers when to harvest in order to maximise the longevity in storage and distribution of their produce.