Kez’s Kitchen, a family-owned manufacturer of premium biscuits, and more recently, cereals and snacks, made a strong commitment to food safety and continuous improvement 16 years ago.
The company, which at the time was already a decade old, had been supplying its individually handmade cookies, made with premium butter and no preservatives, to the deli sections of the major retailers.
The year was 1998 and Woolworths decided to undertake a food safety gap analysis of the suppliers to its delis. Given the deli was considered a higher risk area, this was one of the first areas affected by the new HACCP changes.
Michael Carp, owner and managing director of Kez’s Kitchen, says that after the gap audit was completed, the company saw how far it needed to move.
“We realised that the premises we were in weren’t going to be satisfactory, so we made a huge commitment and moved to a purpose-built factory in January 1999,” he says.
“Because the deli was a higher risk, we were, as a result, part of that very early wave of change,” Carp says. “We were first certified to HACCP standards in 1999, which was long before most biscuit companies, and that became a significant competitive advantage.”
Fifteen years later, Kez’s Kitchen products are still sold by the major retailers as well as in cafes, hotels, and conference rooms. The company also provides over 100,000 biscuits to Qantas, Virgin and REX passengers each month.
These days the company operates out of a 4000 square metre facility in Noble Park, Melbourne, and last year it won outstanding company in the single-site category at the 2013 HACCP Awards.
According to Carp, the company’s early safety focus gave it an edge in the category, so it took things a step further. Five years ago, Carp’s wife Emma took over management of the quality systems and took the business through an SQF food safety program to take its quality credentials to an even higher level.
“This really changed the company’s focus strategically,” Carp says. “We decided that food safety was just one aspect of quality and that the quality in the factory was only one aspect of the company’s total quality management.
“We set about implementing a total quality management system across the whole business and that had as much impact on the sales team, the customer service team, the warehouse and the factory, and the mantra was the same for everybody, which really was just do it right the first time, every time.”
Things didn’t stop there, however. “We are always striving to be better, so about three years ago, we set about taking that up yet another level,” he says. “We decided our future growth was going to come from both quality and from innovation and the two needed to sit side by side.
“We spent a lot of time talking to customers, listening to what they liked about us, what they didn’t, and what they were looking for.”
Carp says though this continuous improvement approach has involved significant investment in staff, systems and equipment, it has resulted in an equally significant return on that investment – the company has seen annual sales growth of 40 per cent for the past few years.
“From a quality point of view, we believe that we are up with the very best in the industry, and we believe that a lot of the business that we’ve picked up over the last two years is a direct result of our focus on innovation, quality and high food safety standards,” Carp says.
“The Australian retail market is tough and growth is difficult, but we would argue that there are still opportunities for businesses that focus on quality and innovation.
“For example, customers we deal with are demanding practices from us that many of our competitors just can’t manage, and our attitude has always been to give them what they want.”
These requirements might centre on systems, traceability, quality of the supply chain, quality of staff and their training, the quality of the product and packaging or the testing of the product, he says.
“The question isn’t whether we can afford to do them, but whether we can afford not to do them. If the market gives everybody six months to develop new products, everybody can probably do it, but if the market gives us two weeks to develop a new product, we may well be the only ones who can do it and we have picked up a significant amount of business from that attitude and our proven fast turnarounds,” says Carp.
“However, we couldn’t have that level of innovation and development without the quality systems in place, as well as a fantastic team.”
Last year the company broadened its product range from just cookies to include cereals and nutritional snack products, and last month it expanded its ever-popular Taking Cafe Home range with the launch of five new cookies (see more below).
Kez’s also has a strong gluten-free product focus as a response to customer requests and Carp’s own gluten-free dietary requirements, and the company’s gluten-free product range now accounts for around 50 per cent of the business, with some lines also certified as FODMAP Friendly.
“In 2007 we recognised a niche opportunity to do the same with gluten free as we’d done with our traditional biscuits – which was to become the most indulgent premium biscuit on the shelves. We were trying to provide the consumer with something that otherwise wasn’t available: a gluten free product that they would be really happy to eat, in line with the tag we use on the Kez’s brand: ‘...it’s all about the taste!’”
“I suppose the big point of difference has been two-fold: seeing quality as more than food safety and seeing innovation and quality as being the two key drivers to growth.”
Fresh off the line
Kez’s Kitchen has expanded its Taking Cafe Home range with the launch of five new cookies that are being sold exclusively in Woolworths.
Mini Mixed Moments are a new take on Melting Moments, and were inspired by the French macaron. The flavours include Chocolate, Passionfruit and Red Velvet (see above).
There are also two cookie slice options: Fig & Date with Dark Choc and Salted Caramel Peanut & Pretzel with Milk Choc, inspired by its Florentine range.
The Chocolate Mud-Cookie Bites available in Chocolate Chip and Salted Caramel Fudge are described as a decadent new twist.
So who is Kez?
Kez (Keren Ludski) founded Kez’s Kitchen with her mother Helen Carp in 1991 and the pair baked cookies out of their home kitchen for the first two years of operations.
Michael Carp, Kez's brother and Kez’s Kitchen’s current managing director and owner, joined her in the business in 1994. Though he was a happily practising solicitor, he saw the opportunity to work with his mother and sister as an exciting one. “Their passion and enthusiasm alone was pretty infectious,” Carp says.
Carp started 20 years ago on the bakery floor learning how to mix, process and pack and worked his way up the ranks for the next two years, when he took over the running of the business.
About six years ago, Carp purchased Kez’s Kitchen from his family, although almost all of the recipes still come directly from Helen, who operates out of a full test kitchen in her home.
