Small business: Kiwi food-tech venture serving up edible cups – New Zealand Herald

Jamie Cashmore, co-founder and director of Auckland-based edible cup manufacturer twiice, talks to the Herald about how this family-run business is serving up a tasty way to solve the issue of single-use cup waste.

What
does your business do?

Twiice is a manufacturer of edible cups. We have also developed the machinery to manufacture the product, so we’ve developed a lot of IP around how the product is made.

What was the motivation to start twiice?

We looked at the number of single-use cups being thrown away around the world (250-300 billion) and were shocked. We knew that there would be a fun way to engage with the everyday New Zealander about how we could change this, and we think edible cups are a really fun way to start that conversation. The vast majority of people that we talk to are amazed that they exist and are excited to engage in conversation.

Why the name twiice?

The name twiice is based on a few different aspects of the product, from the cup having two uses – a vessel and a snack – to the multiple markets that can and are adopting the product. Our tagline “more taste, less waste” speaks to the fact that the cups aren’t only edible, they’re delicious – because why have an edible cup if it doesn’t taste good?

A “leakproof” cup that’s edible – how does it work?

Yeah, that part is key! It will not leak, you can be sure of that. A large part of our secret sauce is in our proprietary machinery. We’ve spent a good part of the last three years in R&D mode – taking our concept from a number 8 wire garage project to what is now a very impressive piece of commercial machinery. This work is largely due to Stephen’s (my father and co-founder) attention to detail and constant work. All of our machinery has been designed, built, tested and patented from here in New Zealand. It’s really turned into a food-tech venture, which is a really fun thought.

What were you doing before twiice?

I was in commercial audio and Stephen was in architectural design and interior conservation.

How big is your team?

There are five of us on the team right now – with more to come very soon.

What products do you sell?

We have three current flavours of twiice cup; vanilla, chocolate and double chocolate. We also do limited edition cups, so for Easter this year we have done a hot cross bun flavour cup, which has been really popular.

Are you supplying your edible cups to any businesses, and who are they?

Yes absolutely. We have a number of resellers all around the country that offer the cups to their customers. These are all listed on the stockist page on our website and are mostly cafes and restaurants. We also brought on our first national distributor at the end of 2022, Aitkens Hospitality.

When did you start your business, and how much has it grown?

We started offering the cups for sale in 2019, just before we did an activation with Air New Zealand – which was amazing. Covid slowed our wholesale sales but allowed us to concentrate on R&D and commercialisation so we’ve seen really amazing growth coming out of Covid. We’re expecting to have our machine at capacity in New Zealand by the end of this year. We’re also working towards a UK market entry later this year, which is really exciting. We were in the UK and Europe at the end of last year on a sales trip and the appetite for twiice cups there is incredible.

What’s the major focus for the business right now?

Right now we’re focused on our investment round (raising up to $5 million) which will enable us to increase productivity and scale our impact here in New Zealand. We will also use this investment to build machinery to send up to the UK to begin production there by the end of this year, where we already have customers waiting.

What challenges is your business facing at the moment?

We’re always looking for ways to make our production more efficient and make more cups. We’re pretty happy about having to think about how to make more though.

Where do you see twiice in the next three to five years?

We’re really excited to take twiice international. We’ve had countless enquiries from all around the world so we’re excited to see just how much impact twiice can have. The goal is to see twiice become a household name in the edible tableware space in this timeframe.

What advice do you give others thinking about starting their own business?

Gather the best team around you that you can. Ask people that have been where you want to go, most people are more than happy to have a chat.