Yum takes a seat around the smoko table at the Food Factory

Granola is set to be dished up at the smoko table at The Food Factory in Stoke.

Yum granola was firing up its ovens in a new premises, after shifting from its inner-city Nelson base to become the anchor tenant at the food co-op site.

“It feels very good to be here already,” Yum director Sarah Hedger said as they were unpacking last week.

The Food Factory opened after lockdown last year, with the aim of providing a foot in the door for burgeoning food businesses that couldn’t afford the start-up costs associated with meeting food safety requirements.

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The brainchild of Pics Peanut Butter founder Pic Picot, the aim of the factory is to provide a collaborative space for small businesses to get up and running while sharing expertise.

It operates as a charitable trust, and the $2.1 million project was granted $778,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund.

Trustee Debbie Hannan said Picot was inspired by memories of working in Parnell Workshops, where a collective of businesses shared space.

“They would meet in the smoko room, share ideas, and it was a very collective culture.”

Now, the Food Factory has a big smoko room – including a big wooden table Picot found on Trade Me.

Along with the smoko rooms, the development has four commercial food-grade kitchens, warehouse and chiller space, and a presentation kitchen.

Since opening, many tenants with one still there, and others staying for as little as a day or week.

Manager Lou Smith said the aim was to allow people with a good idea to test out the product without having to come up with the capital for a food-grade kitchen.

There was also the opportunity for mentoring from the team at Pics nearby, she said.

“It’s a premise, but there’s also so much wrap around stuff that we can do to anyone that has a really good [food and beverage] idea.”

Success was a business that outgrew the space, she said.

“Quite quickly, hopefully, you’ll grow and we can move on to the next phase.”

Increasingly through the year the focus was also shifting to public good, with Ideas Service and Scouts using the space for a fundraising work, and events such as Kai and Kōrero for migrant communities to present food from their culture.

Hannan said that having Yum move in on a longer term lease would help the factory “wash its own face” and provide more secure financial footing to help fund other public outreach initiatives.

“We can have a bit more confidence to do a bit more of the public good, not-for-profit stuff.”

Hedger said it was good timing that led them to the Food Factory, after searching for new premises for about a year.

After developing a kitchen in a refurbished shipping container, the new space at the Food Factory would allow them to grow the business and produce about three times as much product.

She likened moving into the factory like moving into a fully furnished home.

The space was a “much better set-up”, she said.

“It will just ultimately future-proof us to grow, but in a scalable way.”

They were also glad to be around other like-minded businesses, both in the Factory and Stoke.

“We’re super excited to be here and see what the future holds.”