Executive Summary

From humble beginnings selling small batches at the Matakana Farmers Market in 2009, Zeffer has grown to become a leading craft cider brand and the largest independent, dedicated cider producer in New Zealand.

Today we're producing over 300,000 litres per year, roughly equivalent to around 1,000 bottles a day, with our cider being sold across NZ and exported to the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, China, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan.

Unlike many brands that produce cider from concentrate loaded with sugar, we use juice from freshly crushed Hawke’s Bay apples, creating an authentic New Zealand cider with a drier, crisper flavour. Outside of our award-winning core red and green apple range, we produce world leading, “new world” style ciders such as our Hopped and Apple Crumble ciders, using innovative local ingredients like kawakawa and NZ hops.

The Zeffer team is an incredibly talented and focused bunch that won’t allow anything less than excellence to end up inside a Zeffer bottle. My tastebuds aren't easily impressed and yet the team has never, across the smorgasbord of styles they produce, let me down. They're stylish, slick and seriously creative - and that's reflected in the quality of their cider. The Zeffer brand will hit the stratosphere if given half the chance - I'm convinced of that." - Yvonne Lorkin, Co-Founder of WineFriend and Wine & Beverages Editor for Dish Magazine

The cider market is experiencing rapid international growth, growing at 25% CAGR over the past 5 years (Zeffer has grown at 54% CAGR over the same period). Here at home, cider is the fastest growing alcohol category, and much like the trend in beer from mainstream to craft styles over the last five years, consumers are now also seeking a more premium, handcrafted cider. Unlike the craft beer market, the craft cider market is only now beginning to emerge. They are distinctly separate markets, but craft cider is likely to follow similar trends as craft beer has experienced over the past 10 years. With nationwide distribution and strong brand positioning, we’re set to grow with the premiumisation of the cider category.

While we currently export to nine markets around the world, this year we're honing our export focus on two of these markets: China and Thailand. Cider is starting to take off in these territories, so we’re working closely with the best Chinese and Thai distributors and are setting up local, dedicated staff to drive sales in these exciting, emerging markets.

In New Zealand, our distributor, Quench Collective is on track to continue to grow sales through their high call frequency and merchandising coverage in all key retail outlets. Last quarter we were the fastest growing cider brand in grocery, growing at 75% on the same period last year. We’re on track to reach over $1.75m in
sales in the current financial year and $2.6m revenue (with a profit of $52k) in the upcoming financial year. We’re also moving production from our existing cidery in Silverdale, north of Auckland, to the source of our apples in the sunny Hawke’s Bay, resulting in annual freight savings of approximately $200k.

To execute our Asian export strategy and increase domestic resources to drive growth, we’re now raising $700k to $1.2m through Snowball Effect, on a pre-money valuation of $4.5m.

We love what we do and we love sharing our world-class, unique cider with New Zealanders. This is our opportunity to strengthen the Zeffer team at an exciting point in our growth journey, by on-boarding the Kiwis who love our cider as shareholders. Join us as together we create New Zealand’s next FMCG success story.