Tegel recruiting more staff

Tegel recruiting more staff as “chicken” bacon sells out

Tegel has become a victim of its own success struggling to meet record demand for its new chicken “bacon” which sold out nationwide within 10 days of hitting supermarkets.

Tegel has recruited 20 more processing staff at its Christchurch plant, and is still looking for more staff to cope with demand for its new chicken “bacon”.

It has also flown in key ingredients from Germany and Australia so it could keep producing product while it waited for a larger shipment order to arrive this week.

Tegel’s Managing Director Bruce Scott says overwhelming demand has outstripped the company’s ability to supply. Some would say it is a good problem to have, but that is not how Tegel sees it.

Tegel has taken every step possible so it can increase production. Along with recruiting more staff, extending production hours and air freighting key ingredients, it has invested in more packaging equipment to increase output.

“The level of consumer interest in this product caught us by surprise, with sales far exceeding what we expected. Particularly, as we were launching something totally new.

“Regrettably our inability to supply the market not only impacts on our performance it is also a lost opportunity for our trade customers,” Mr Scott said.

“The main reason we’ve been unable to supply the market is we were waiting for our shipment of key ingredients to arrive, which was still at sea. To relieve the problem we took the unprecedented step of flying in ingredients”.

PAK ‘N Save Glen Innes Dairy Deli manager Arran Scanes said from a trade perspective it was frustrating and disappointing not being able to take full advantage of a product which had received unprecedented demand – even before it hit the shelves.

“Very rarely do we ever see this level of reaction from customers coming in asking to buy a product before they’ve even seen it. Chicken “bacon” is something new, they want to taste it and there’s nothing else like it – but we’ve had to turn people away,” he said.

Launched earlier this month as a potential world first “bacon” made from chicken, Tegel Smoked Chicken Rashers smell like bacon, look like bacon and taste like bacon – but are made from premium chicken and are 95% fat free.

Tegel is now back in full production of chicken rashers.

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