A local area honey farm will be making a pitch to bring new capital and a partner into the fold when they appear on CBC's Dragon's Den this Sunday, Jan. 13.
Wendell Estate Honey has been a family-ran operation at MacNutt since it was established in the 1940s by John Wendell. Today operated by Tim and Isabelle Wendell the farm runs some 3,000 hives spread across a 200-mile radius of MacNutt.
"We're one of the biggest ones (in the province)," said Martin Neuhofer, who heads marketing for the farm. Seasonally they employ some 40 people, both from the local area, as well as seasonal labourers from Mexico, Nicaragua and Eastern Europe.
Neuhofer said they have traditionally sold their production in bulk, a minimum order being a semi-load, which was usually handled by a broker, so their honey could end up in any number of products and under a range of labels.
"We've only sold honey wholesale bulk in barrels," he said.
To diversify their sales Neuhofer said he wants to develop a line of Wendell Estate Honey products for the high-end consumer market both domestically and abroad.
The business had already undertaken its first run of product, soft-creamed-honey presented in jars, with sales in Canada, as well as Japan and China.
"We analyzed the market for the high-end honey, honey that was nicely presented," he said.
In terms of quality, Neuhofer said Saskatchewan's so-called 'northern vigour' along with strong bees produced through generations of on-farm breeding, means a high quality honey.
Neuhofer said when selling bulk honey they know it is often mixed with "lesser honey" to improve the quality for certain superstore lines.
The Wendell Estate product is not trying to compete with the mass-produced, heated and packaged honeys available on supermarket shelves.
Instead, Neuhofer said they are looking to generate sales through gift shops, high-end wine stores and similar locations, where it can sell at a significant premium as a hostess gift, or as a corporate gift.
As an example a twelve ounce jar of the Wendell Estate Honey retails for some $18 in Montreal and $40 in China, said Neuhofer.
"We've never had anything in a jar before We're selling a really high-end process," said Neuhofer, adding it is raw honey, which is processed in a way that "it stays soft for its life."
Neuhofer said since the honey in not heated the natural enzymes of the honey remain.
To further ensure top quality, the early season honey collected, and the late season honey are not used. Only honey from the prime flowering season will go into the jars, said Neuhofer, adding most of the nectar the bees collect come from area canola and clover fields.
It is the canola/clover combination which produces a very white honey, and that makes it very appealing in China, Japan and the Middle East, said Neuhofer, adding it is also a very sweet honey, to the point a Middle East customer thought they must have added sugar "to be that sweet."
While noting "there is a market for a very high-end honey," Neuhofer said they are also working to make sure they can carve as large a niche as possible.
To that end Neuhofer said they have had the honey 'kosher certified' through a Montreal group, a process which included having a rabbi inspect the premises at MacNutt.
The premises now includes a new building and processing line which will enable Wendell Estate Honey to fill their jars, purchased in Italy, on the farm.
Looking ahead, with some Dragon help, Neuhofer said he is confident they will sell a large amount of jarred honey.
"In five years, maybe 50 per cent of our business. That's our optimistic approach," he said.
But to grow the sales, Neuhofer said he felt the need to look at bringing in some additional expertise, noting while they have done well selling bulk honey, it is a different market selling a high-end product on an international basis.
"We only have wholesale experience. This is different," he said.
That is where the idea to try for a spot on Dragon's Den began to percolate for Neuhofer.
"We analyzed the show," he said, adding the primary interest was to garner publicity for the product through an appearance.
They applied and were among 200 auditioning at Winnipeg earlier in 2012. Neuhofer said he left for the audition at 5 a.m. and put together his pitch while on the highway driving.
"I had no expectations," said Neuhofer, who added he took the Dragon's Den process as just another marketing initiative. "I do the marketing. Eighty per cent of the stuff you do you never see any results."
So making the cut was unexpected.
"I was really surprised when we did get on," said Neuhofer.
Once they had a spot on the show, taped in Toronto, Neuhofer said he at least felt they headed east with reasonable expectations of what they wanted and what they needed to do to get a deal done.
"We knew what we wanted," he said.
"And we had a pretty clear understanding of what they (the Dragons) were looking for."
Again it came down to research. Neuhofer said he watched a lot of episodes, and talked to others who went through the show to get a better understanding of how to present a compelling case for their pitch.
That said Neuhofer added he was ready if things went bad too.
"It can be hard on the self esteem I was ready for the negativity that didn't come," he said, relating how some presenters draw the ire of the Dragon's for bad ideas, or ridiculous expectations.
"You have 10-seconds to get the pitch across and then they eat you alive."
In this case they went in looking for $200,000 for 25 per cent of the business.
If they do get an on-screen deal, Neuhofer said they would still have to go through detailed negotiations with the Dragon's associates to ensure the dollars and cents line up, before ever seeing a dollar.
"Very few deals are consummated," he said.
