Dear Customers

Product changes

As you will have noticed Venerdi is going through a state of change:

New branding, gas flushing, 5 day working weeks, new products and increased prices.

I would like to explain these changes for you from our perspective as some of them may appear at odds with our over all philosophy of Healthy food, sustainability and affordability for all.

We have not changed our focus on nutritional quality and are still trying hard to keep it affordable.

Over the last 12 months you will all know about increasing costs and for us they have been huge: Organic Rice flour price has increased threefold in the last 9 months. Freight has increased substantially and the effect of 4 week holidays has increased our labour costs and so on.

To mitigate these costs we have increased productivity by doing 6 days work in 5 saving on shift staff for the 6th day, installing more machinery to make the process more efficient and increased the shelf life by gas flushing ie.replacing the air with a mixture of CO2 and N2.

The move to gas flushing is to address the biggest complaint from our customers, which is; "The shelves are often bare". Gas flushing reduces the risk of loss to the reseller so they may hold more stock and is an incentive to keep the margin down. The 2 plastic bags, on a few lines is a contradiction to sustainability and that we accept, but we had the outer branded bags in stock and the cost of a label is 2x the price of the bag which would have to have been disposed of anyway, so to minimize cost, maintain continuity in the interim we are using up old stock first.

Product Quality

Since the introduction of our new white rice based loaves we have experienced a drought on the rice market and have had to resort to lower quality white rice. It has unfortunately affected the staling properties of the new white loaves. We have now found a new supply of organic white rice and are adding "NZ value" by having it milled in New Zealand.

The new flour will be in the loaves with a Best Before 27th October or later and from this Bread you should see a marked improvement. In all cases with the new gas flushed bags remember “fresh is best” so check on our website when your local store gets the bread fresh and buy it that day and eat it fresh for lunch! Put the rest in a sealed container in the freezer and remove slices as required. If the bread is a little older a slight toasting brings the freshness back and as most gluten free bread eaters know if all else fails all the way to the end of it's shelf life, the bread makes good toast and great toasted sandwiches.

Venerdi growth:

Venerdi breads are going to be able to be found in most Supermarkets including most Woolworths Foodtown and Countdown stores shortly so watch in your local store and on the "where to buy" section” on our website.

Watch this space for regular updates.

Happy eating

Regards
Phil