Pic’s spreading the love

Pic Picot is a local business celebrity in Nelson, where he produces and exports his world-famous peanut butter. He’s also living proof that it’s never too late to pursue one’s dream.

Wellington-born Pic Picot has lived a full life. His CV reads leather worker, bus driver, furniture maker, giftware manufacturer and marketer, boat-builder, sailor, restauranteur, charter boat broker and sailing school operator. Then eight years ago, after moving across Cook Straight to settle in Nelson, he added peanut butter-maker to that list – and now he’s stuck on it.

Of course, at age 55, Pic never intentionally set out to become New Zealand’s most famous peanut butter personality, running a 21-man operation responsible for producing the country’s best-selling peanut butter brand (it currently has a 30.6 percent market share, and growing!)

What he did set out to do was make a peanut butter with minimal salt, and zero, yes zilch, sugar, initially to satisfy himself, but also for friends to try. Just shows what happens when you do something absolutely right, and nobody has been more surprised at the success of the brand over the years than Pic himself!

The inspiration was sparked by a jar of US-made reduced sugar peanut butter he found while sharing a boat with friends in the Bay of Islands many years ago. It got him thinking that the ‘reduced sugar’ trend would eventually make its way to New Zealand. (Recent history, of course, would prove him correct, although that’s not to say peanut butter manufacturers haven’t tried, and failed, to secure the sugar-reduced/free market in recent times!)

Pic also took exception to a so-called market survey quoted by a young call centre rep at the aforementioned US manufacturer who boldly claimed that the majority of people actually preferred sugary peanut butter. Oh really?

“It was kind of insulting to be told sugar in peanut butter is popular and that’s the way I should like it too,” he recalls.

As it turned out, Pic’s friends, after first regarding his peanut butter as just another one of his looney, half-baked ideas (Pic had a reputation from as early as primary school for being a bit of an inventor), later confessed that they actually liked the taste.

The response to Pic’s Peanut Butter when he set up a stall at Nelson’s Farmers’ Market was so impressive he established a mail order business to handle repeat sales.
In the early days Pic did pretty much everything – even designing his own labels, which were initially attached with double sided tape.

“I’d recently completed a creative writing course, which gave me licence to express myself. I wanted to the labels to look interesting,” he recalls.

On the subject of labels, Pic had also been inspired by a bright green bottle of mint-infused shampoo he came across which boldly claimed to ‘smell like mint sauce’. “I thought, what a nerve! But I really liked that. The product spoke to me like a friend.”

Pic has been blown away by how many friends he’s made through his peanut butter. He gets recognised wherever he goes in Nelson. People love giving him positive feedback on his product. “Nelsonians have carried it all over the world. The whole city is proud of its peanut butter factory,” he says. And The Pic’s World of Peanuts factory has become a ‘must-see’ tourist attraction.

“I never would have thought people could get so passionate about a grocery item,” he admits.

In the beginning Pic’s motivation was simply to make a very good peanut butter. But he describes his biggest milestone as the day he decided to give up the notion that ‘small is beautiful’ and take Pic’s Peanut Butter as far as it could go.

When Pic’s became the top selling peanut butter in New Zealand two years ago Pic thought the brand had peaked in the domestic market. He was wrong. “Sales continue to grow remarkably,” he says. “At around 40 to 50 percent per year. That’s astounding, and to think the initial growth was largely built on word of mouth.

Pic credits his team, clever marketing and PR for building on that loyal following. He also still regularly works the stand at the Nelson Market and food shows to connect personally with customers.

“What’s happened is we’ve ‘premiumised’ the product category,” explains Pic.

He says he had his fair share of doubting Thomases in the beginning, but not anymore.

Offshore potential
With exports currently running at ten to 15 percent of turnover, even greater potential lies offshore; Australia in particular. After establishing a mail-order following there through his sister, and generating significant consumer demand (“a customer advocate is worth far more than a salesperson”), it was time to get serious across the ditch.

“When we had the capacity we attended an NZTE Path to Market seminar in Melbourne and appointed a distributor for delis and specialty stores,” says Pic. “We acquired a distributor in each state before pitching to Coles and Woolworths, and now we’re stocked in around 750 Coles stores across Australia.”

He believes Pic’s Peanut Butter will eventually outsell Kraft, “which has sales of $50 million in Australia”. Aussies also love the fact that the product is made with premium Queensland-sourced hi-oleic peanuts.

Beyond Australia, the US market also looks promising. “We’re in about 20 stores on the West Coast and shipping our first full container there. Americans understand peanut butter and especially treasure the boutique brands. They treat it like fine wine and buy it from their favourite supplier by the case.

“We’ve also just sent our first full container to our Singapore distributor and have a full time rep building the brand in the UK.” 

Pic says they’re grateful for the “tremendous support” they’ve received from NZTE in these markets too.

Recent product initiatives include peanut oil, almond butter and cashew butter and a peanut butter snack pack called ‘slups’, “to change people's perception of peanut butter as just a spread”.

Production capability currently stands at up to 12,000 jars a day, and output will quadruple when a new factory is commissioned in October – giving Pic’s the confidence to take on the world.

Stepping back
In 2010 Pic took off his management gloves and set up a governance board, bringing on experienced FMCG specialist Stu Macintosh, as a consultant (and, subsequently, GM).

Pic’s decision to step back was forced by deteriorating eyesight. It meant letting go of aspects of the business he enjoyed – particularly graphic design, but also plant development and some marketing functions.

Nowadays, he enjoys being the brand’s official ambassador and is ably assisted by his trusty guide dog Fido, who shares his office and happens to have a penchant for Pic’s Peanut Butter. “It helps make those worming tablets much more palatable!”

Going forward, Pic is also looking to pursue more speaking engagements. “It gives me a chance to tell our story to a captive audience,” he says. It’s an inspiring story around marketing, working with a physical challenge, and the fact that enthusiasm is unbeatable.

“Oh, and even that us old farts can be successful too!”