Horowhenua family business Pouch Products is celebrating success after scooping the prestigious Hero Award for March for all round excellence from the Buy NZ Made Campaign.
The company has created a unique and eye-catching range of easy to use, stylish, handmade reusable bags that are useful for many aspects of modern busy lives. They are all designed and made in New Zealand using as many NZ-sourced raw materials as is physically possible.
The Buy NZ Made monthly Hero Awards recognises companies who not only do a fantastic job promoting their NZ Made status but who have also excelled in other key commercial areas and success for Pouch Products has been continuous for half a decade, as Director Sharyn Foster explained.
“Demand for the produce pouches in particular has grown drastically over the last five years as people look to remove more single-use plastic from their daily lives, sales of this product have doubled or more each year,” she explained.
“Demand for the grocery and carry pouches was strong three and a half years ago when we released them but has steadied over the last year as more people now own and use reusable bags, and that, of course, is a good thing and another sign of ‘big picture’ success. Sales of our other products have steadily grown each year.”
The stylish range includes a wide range of everyday useful products such as food, carrying, grocery, clothing, toy and swimwear pouch style bags.
The company began its journey with a simple desire to provide a New Zealand made option for reusable bags. The Produce Pouch was the starting point for all and was designed to encourage people to reduce massive consumption of plastic carrier bags when grocery shopping.
The range grew as the company staff, their friends and customers found it difficult to source other types of bags, especially ones that were made here in New Zealand. In addition, the company found that many products available internationally simply were not up to the job, such as swimwear pouches which did not ensure school bag contents would remain dry.
As the March winner, Pouch Products will receive a certificate, promotion on the Buy NZ Made website, promotion in target media, Hero artwork which they can use in their own marketing, a social media advertising voucher worth $100 to be used on Buy NZ Social Media channels and automatic entry into the annual competition.
Foster added that the company and its team of staff were delighted to be the Hero for the month.
“We have always been big believers in supporting locally made and being a member of Buy NZ Made has been an important part of the business,” she said. “Receiving the Hero Award has reiterated that we are doing something worthwhile and it is a real honour to be chosen alongside other great New Zealand brands.”
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