New Zealand’s famous peanut butter will be available on Chinese supermarket shelves this month. Shenzhen Qianhai Ebaytown International Ebusiness Ltd (Ebaytown) started to distribute Pic’s in China in 2015, and began selling it on the Tmall online store in 2016. Now, Pic’s will move from online to offline sales in China. Ebaytown vice president Daniel Wang says, “Ebaytown will distribute Pic’s to physical stores, including department stores, chain stores and supermarkets in China. Chinese customers will be able to buy Pic’s in all the provinces of China. Ebaytown intends to build Pic’s as a premium product in China and promote New Zealand to the Chinese market, with the aim of bringing more tourists and investors to both New Zealand and the Nelson region.”
Pic’s Peanut Butter Owner Pic Picot, and General Manager Stuart Macintosh attended the cooperation signing ceremony in Shenzhen, China on 16 May to formalise the deal. The ceremony was widely covered by Chinese media, including online media, newspapers and TV.
Picot says, “It took a lot of time, and a number of false starts before we settled on Ebaytown as our partners in getting Pic’s into the hands of our Chinese customers. Ebaytown has strong management teams in both New Zealand and China, and strong alliances with major Chinese distribution companies, giving us a wide range of online and bricks and mortar channels. In the end though, it is the people who matter most, and in Catherine and Daniel Wang we have found partners with whom we can really enjoy doing business.”
Pic’s and Ebaytown have an agreed goal to introduce and promote other healthy products from SMEs in the Nelson region to China. The company also currently distributes New Zealand products Earthwise, Streamland, Karen Murrell and Greenways.
The signing of the agreement with Pic’s came soon after the ‘One Belt, One Road’ summit in Beijing, which aimed to open up trade opportunities and make it easier for New Zealand companies to do business in China.
Did you know?
Pic’s Really Good Peanut Butter was established in 2007. Made in Nelson, Pic’s Peanut Butter is sold in supermarkets around New Zealand and Australia, and in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, the UK, Japan, China and the US. It is also shipped to mail order customers all over the world. Pic’s Peanut Butter comes in four varieties, crunchy or smooth, salted or unsalted, in 200g, 380g and 1Kg jars, as well as a 30g snack tube (slugs) and single-serve hospitality sachets. Pic’s also produce almond butter and cashew butter as well as a cold-pressed peanut oil.
