Emma-Jane's has looked back over the past 12 months, from expanding export operations to the Pacific, to sharing European delicacies.
At Emma-Jane’s, we’ve had a fantastic year filled with many highlights! We've made the most of our time as a company, continuing our growth from a small family business to New Zealand's one-stop shop for high-end European offerings. One of our biggest milestones this year was expanding our export operations to the Pacific Islands. It’s been incredibly rewarding to share European delicacies such as our Butter Croissants, Mini Mixed Danish, and a wide range of desserts with our friends across the water.
As part of our continued growth, we were also able to attend one of Europe’s largest trade shows, Anuga, in Germany. This experience allowed our team to explore exciting new product developments (coming soon!) and discover emerging trends for next year, including innovative new flavour profiles and further advancements in frozen food quality. We’re also proud to have added a new staff member to our team, further highlighting our company’s growth!
This year, Emma-Jane’s Foodservice was proud to introduce 10 exciting new products to our range! With the continued development of our Savoury range, we’ve expanded our offering with new pack sizes and convenient solutions for your accompaniments. A standout addition is the creamy, cheesy Potato Gratin, now available in smaller packs of four—perfect for retail resale or the "at-home" chef.
We’ve also fully embraced all things German with our Swabian Style Pretzel, which has been described as “one of the most authentic German pastries New Zealand has to offer.” Continuing with this German-inspired range, we’re thrilled to introduce the Pretzel Burger Bun and Pretzel Baguette, the latter of which was spotted in the wild during one of our employee’s travels!
At the end of last year, we also soft-launched our new Savoury Pastry range, which includes the Ham and Cheese Swirl and the Mini Savoury Swirls. These products have been a hit, filling a significant gap in the market and proving that New Zealand’s morning tea doesn’t have to be limited to just pies and sausage rolls.
Now, onto what Emma-Jane’s is really known for—our mouthwatering sweets. This year, we launched new flavoured éclairs, featuring popular Kiwi flavours such as Raspberry, Coffee, and the classic Chocolate. These showstopping treats have been a crowd favourite!
Our cheesecake range from Traiteur de Paris never disappoints, and this year we introduced Mini Cheesecakes with a mascarpone base, offering a lighter, more delicate option that stands out in the hospitality scene. We also brought in the pre-made San Sebastian Cheesecake, which has been flying off the shelves (and disappearing from our team’s snack table)!
A quick mention of our Ready to Fill range—these products are the perfect base for chefs to express their creativity with different flavours and textures. With the new 11cm Sweet Tart Shell and Mini Vol-au-Vent, we’ve added the ideal bases to help make your life a little easier.
Along with all our exciting new product developments, our trailer made a real impact on New Zealand roads this year, visiting all 16 regions multiple times. From customer presentations and Bidfood and Service Foods tradeshows to golf days and providing our favourite teams with morning teas, we’ve had the pleasure of introducing the new range of Emma-Jane’s products across the country. If you follow us on social media (@emmajanesfoodservice), you’ll know we love to travel, and our trailer has been clocking up the kilometres! If you’d like to have Emma-Jane’s Foodservice at your event next year, give us a call—we’d love to discuss how we can be part of it.
This year, we were also proud to give back to the community with our "Lemon Tarts for the Heart" promotion. Through this initiative, our loyal customers nominated charities to receive our delicious lemon tarts. Thanks to this generous support, we were able to contribute to many great causes, including Women’s Refuge, The Salvation Army, Good Neighbour, Rapid Relief Team, and more.
The true heroes in every Emma-Jane’s Foodservice story are our customers! Your ongoing support has been vital to our business’s success. We’ve had many success stories this year, with some of the best caterers in the business making our Mini Mixed Danish and Lemon Tart staples on their menus. Hotels have also pushed the boundaries of a breakfast buffet by adding our Mini Filled Donuts.
One of our favourite success stories from this year is the strong push into in-store bakeries, particularly at New World and Pak’nSave. Thanks to the homemade quality of our Crodots, the teams at both of these companies have trusted that these are the next big snack food in cabinets across Aotearoa. We’ve seen some fantastic creations, from classic custard fillings to seasonal flavours, all beautifully decorated with themed designs.
What a year it’s been for the foodservice industry! Despite the challenges of staff shortages and decreasing budgets in hospitality, the positives certainly outweigh the negatives when it comes to enjoying great food. We want to end this on a heartfelt thank you, though words don’t seem to do it justice. Your continued support and trust are things we hold close to our hearts. We can’t wait to continue serving you endless samples at tradeshows and seeing your smiling faces.
As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited about what’s to come—and from what we already know, it’s going to be a colourful year (hint, hint…)
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