Today on the podcast, I speak to Eliana Glover –managing director of FSL foods, a family run business with 20 years’ experience sourcing and selling frozen fruit and vegetables. FSL work closely with local and international growers to produce leading retail brands that we find in our supermarket freezers such as Fruzio, Goodness Kitchen and The Berry Fix, the majority of which are packed by the team in their Nelson based factory.

Eli’s story is slightly different to many of my previous guests. Over the past few years she’s had quite the entrepreneurial journey which has led to her current role. After identifying a gap in the baking market, Eli launched Hill St Wholefoods in early 2019, which offered easy, affordable and nutritious plant-based baking mixes for the modern baker. Building the business from the ground up, Hill St Wholefoods quickly acquired a presence and stockists throughout Aotearoa and Australia. 

However, Eli faced an unexpected challenge in 2021 when a trademarking dispute arose from an Australian company. Faced with the cost of continuing the legal battle or rebuilding the brand under a new name – Eli made the choice to sell Hill St to New Zealand company Mrs Rogers, who rebranded the products under their existing baking line. It was then that Eli refocused her attention to the family business, taking on the role of Managing Director at FSL.

So, as you can see, in a few short years Eli has learnt a lot of business lessons, the good and the bad, from awesome highs to massive challenges. There is so much that we can learn from Eli’s story, and I absolutely loved this chat. Like with all my guests, Eli was so open and willing to share all the details of her business journey and her experience and learnings makes for such an inspiring listen.

I really loved talking to her about her current role and learning more about the world of FMCG – a world which I really don’t know too much about. We talk about the broad scope of her role – from business strategy, pricing and logistics to new product development and marketing, there is so much creativity and opportunity, I personally learnt so much.

Anyway, to learn more about FSL you can visit their website fslfoods.co.nz or find them on Instagram @fslfoodsltd but probably the best way you can learn about their delicious products is by finding them in the freezer aisle of your supermarket! 

I know you will love my chat with Eli as much as I did.

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Hosted by Catie Dawson
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