60 Years of Sweet Moments 🎂

Being at the helm of New Zealand’s sweetest business is all about people, relationships and learning to enjoy the ride for third-generation owner of Sweet Moments, Mike Briant.

Mike Briant completed the Owner Manager Programme in 2015.

What’s the history of the business?

My Grandad started the business 60 years ago selling bakery and butchery supplies. Talking to my Nana about why they started the business, she says it was about people and that hasn’t changed but the business itself has changed a lot.

Originally, we were only baking supplies but now we are also a manufacturing business. We employ 40 plus staff and 30 per cent of the business is in Australia. We have acquired four businesses in the last three years and grown 25% year on year over the past five years.

We are made up of several different specialty food manufacturing wholesale businesses and brands with a few divisions under the overall Sweet Moments Group; GoBake is the baking and cake decorating products, The Sprinkle Factory manufactures toppings (for the likes of Krispy Kreme) and inclusions, Chocolate Brown is an artisan chocolate business, and The Remarkable Chocolate Company is our latest acquisition.

We’re supplying across retail, food service and industrial markets locally and into Australia and Asia. We’ve rebranded to better fit who we are, what we do and why we do it.

Transitioning from a small business to a medium-sized family business has been a challenge - constantly having to break through new ceilings.

Why did you choose to do the Icehouse Owner Manager Programme?

I didn’t go to university, but Dad put me in work situations like meeting key customers and travelling overseas to meet suppliers, at a very young age. He gave me a long leash and probably sometimes to his detriment because I wanted to jump in and be involved with everything!

He has always said surround yourself with networks and the right people. I felt like I had reached the limit of what I could learn from my own networks and then reading articles about the Icehouse and how it had helped business owners, it seemed like the best combination of learning and networks.

I put it off for a year or two when we had young children but sometimes you have to put yourself in uncomfortable positions and I’m stronger for it.

What were the outcomes from the Icehouse?

One change was defining our purpose and our values and that helped us make smarter decisions for the future. We decided to exit half the business because it didn’t align with who we are. An extremely difficult decision at the time, but the right one.

It sounds strange because we were an established business but I didn’t really know where the business was going. It had been a bit of a slog for my folks to be honest, but I saw it as a platform to do something great - I just needed to work out what that was and the Icehouse allowed me to do that.

I still catch up with people from my cohort 3 or 4 times a year. We are all at different stages, but it’s been incredibly valuable to lean into that group as our business grew. There are so many great New Zealand businesses out there to learn from.

Dad would say it’s the best investment he ever made for the business.

It’s a huge part of my drive to share the success of the company with my parents, so ultimately my success has been their success. They have been able to retire with a scenario that’s worked well and we have been intentional about the succession plan and doing it properly, including a contract that documents the family’s interests so everyone is on the same page.

Manufacturing has had its ups and downs in NZ – how are you finding it?

It’s tough but there’s something special about manufacturing – historically we only started manufacturing when we acquired the sprinkle business 4 years ago and before that I swore we wouldn’t get into manufacturing! But we actually love it and now it’s part of our strategy to grow the business.

It helps us leverage other importing capabilities, for example we deal with Krispy Kreme America and we’re working on 30 different markets for them and the opportunity came about because of our manufacturing capabilities.

We can control our own destiny because we have that capability and that competitive advantage and we’re not reliant on other manufacturers if we want to make last minute changes.

How does creating a positive culture help you to retain staff?

We have an intentional culture playbook, so people want to come to work – our values aren’t about pointing the finger, it’s about offering an open hand. Culture isn’t about beers on Fridays or ten-pin bowling once a year, there’s no finish-line with culture, the day you think you’ve clocked it then you’re in trouble.

The expectation is that I will always put my best foot forward and people will join me. It’s about that equal balance relationship. There is a pretty special birthday culture wrapped around our team - including birthday cakes of course!

What advice do you have for other business owners?

Surround yourself with great people and give it a hundy. You can only do that when you understand your values and your purpose and then live and breathe them every day.

Learn more about the Owner Manager Programme here.