The great ice cream adventure

Emerald Foods creates dairy treats that reflect New Zealand's fresh and natural image

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ENTREPRENEUR Diane Foreman saw potential in a failing ice cream business. Today, Ms Foreman is CEO of Emerald Group, which runs Emerald Foods, a company with a stable of six ice cream brands, including New Zealand Natural ice cream. Natural and fresh flavours that reflect New Zealand roots mark Emerald's frozen dairy treats. Their scooped frozen yoghurt is also 97% fat-free and contains healthy yoghurt cultures such as S. thermophilis, L. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus and Bifidobacteria. Ice cream innovations under the New Zealand Natural brand have reaped industry awards and won loyal fans worldwide. The international success of her New Zealand Natural ice cream brand stands out as the jewel in the crown of the formidable business empire created by Ms Foreman, who was named the New Zealand Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in October 2009 and competed for the World Entrepreneur of the Year title in Monte Carlo in May this year. As is the case with many entrepreneurs, Ms Foreman didn't have much of a taste for education leaving school at 15 with no tertiary qualification. She trained as a typist and in her early 20s became a medical secretary. When former husband Bill Foreman came to the practice one day, a strong business and marriage partnership began. A major stroke in 1990 prompted Bill to promote Dianne to board status of his Trigon Holdings in order to learn the business as well as manage family interests. Eventually becoming CEO, she single-handedly negotiated the sale of Trigon to US interests at a purchase price of NZ$130 million. Post deal, Ms Foreman continued to create success on her own terms. She's also involved in health care with an aptly named Healthcare Holdings (23% owned by Emerald) providing private hospital and clinic facilities and owning 100% of the MercyAscot Group. Broadening the sweet and surgery base, Emerald Group is involved in hospitality and tourism via the boutique, Auckland-based Emerald Inn; a 50% holding in specialist, high level recruitment and contracting company Emergent Limited provides a good investment as well as a source for key talent to help manage her Group. Today her four 'gems' of completely different heritage directly, or through shareholding, employs over 4,000 people and has interests in 29 countries. Not your plain vanilla In business terms, Foreman's world is clearly not vanilla. Not even hokey-pokey, as her butterscotch ice cream flavour is known. In fact, in ice cream terms, it would be near impossible to pick a flavour that captured the diversity of her Emerald Group. Nevertheless, ice cream is an important part of her empire. Purchased as a failing business Ms Foreman saw its potential. When she purchased New Zealand Natural in 2005, the company was in trouble and operated in just nine countries. She implemented a new management team and a changed strategy that has seen it become New Zealand's largest franchise business. By 2006 ice cream exports accounted for 21 percent of its total revenue. Over the past three years Emerald Foods Group has experienced spectacular growth, increasing export sales by 300 per cent. The world economic downturn has done nothing to stifle that growth, with the Auckland company planning to open six new markets early this year. Emerald Foods is first and foremost a manufacturer of premium ice cream, sorbets and frozen yoghurt. Products are manufactured under proprietary brands, including New Zealand Natural and Killinchy Gold. It also co-manufactures ice cream for a number of international clients and owns the New Zealand Natural global ice cream parlour franchise, which now operates almost 700 own franchised stores in 21 markets. Exports represent more than half of Emerald's total annual revenue.nike