Cracker brand owner from NZ wins $1.4 million in New York business competition – Stuff.co.nz

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Rebecca Brady is the owner of organic, gluten-free, vegan cracker brand Top Seedz.

After ten years out of the workforce to look after her kids, a New Zealand woman took her home baking to her local farmers market hoping to create a source of income.

Now Rebecca Bradys organic, vegan, and gluten-free seed crackers are in Americas biggest supermarkets, and shes just won US$1.4 million to help go global.

[The business] its doing really well and our biggest problem is meeting demand, she said from her Buffalo, New York, home.

Brady left New Zealand about 27 years ago, doing stints in Singapore and Japan before settling in Buffalo, New York in 2015.

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The reality was I had a ten-year gap in my resume, so it was pretty hard to find a job.

I thought what do I really want to do?, and I love good nutrition, the connection between what we eat is who we are and how we perform in life.

Shed been making her own healthy snacks for her children for as long as she could remember, so thought shed give it a go by selling her crackers made of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, chia, hemp and flax seeds, at a local farmers market.

It was really quiet, the middle of winter, and we got about five people coming each Saturday, which was just fine because I really didnt know what I was doing, she laughed.

Kaitahi As One Frozen Smoothy Drops use indigenious ingredients and are available in New World stores nationwide.

It was there she came up with the name Top Seedz, invested $5000 into the brand, perfected the packaging and marketed the products.

And now Im in four Whole Foods regions throughout the country.

The company has experienced two times the growth year-on-year, and Brady's vision is to be a US$100 million (NZ$139.4m) company.

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Top Seedz crackers are made of pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, chia, hemp and flax seeds.

The brand is currently in 350 stores across America, and is selling on average 50,000 boxes of crackers a month.

Whole Foods has already approached Brady asking when she will be ready to go country-wide, but due to the manufacturing process being hands-on and manual, she cant.

We need to spend money on equipment and automate those processes, so we can meet the pent-up demand.

Brady runs the manufacturing herself, and 90 per cent of her employees are women and all are refugees.

She beat more than 18 other businesses in a lengthy accelerator programme, North 43, to win US$1m as well as year-long mentorship.

That will allow her to build an automated manufacturing system to boost demand and expand production including bringing the brand to New Zealand.

I think my mother would kill me if I didn't.

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Cracker brand owner from NZ wins $1.4 million in New York business competition - Stuff.co.nz