Savvy Kiwi firm takes food manufacturing world by storm

Media release
28 July 2011

An Auckland company’s insightful approach to commercialising ideas and technology has seen it take the global food manufacturing world by storm.

EverEdge IP, New Zealand’s only full service ideas and technology commercialisation firm, has just signed its fourth licensing contract with the world’s largest dairy manufacturer Danone. This saw EverEdge IP’s CrushPak® technology launched in Argentina and Canada, following earlier launches in Mexico and the United States. The company has further contracts in the pipeline for countries in the Middle East, South America and Africa.

EverEdge IP supplies the intellectual property that has enabled Danone to ship many millions of units globally. Total supply is expected to climb to more than 500 million units by the end of 2011.

The technology – which is a world first - consists of a compressible, accordion-like cup that can be used four different ways to eat or dispense soft foods. It is proving popular with food manufacturers and consumers alike.

CrushPak has so impressed Danone’s US arm, Dannon, that EverEdge IP won the ‘Innovation’ category in its 2010 Supplier of the Year Awards. This is a significant achievement given that Dannon has around 6000 suppliers in the United States alone.

EverEdge IP Chief Executive Officer Paul Adams says this success exemplifies how a structured and robust approach to commercialisation enables New Zealand businesses to generate significant wealth from their innovations.

“As a nation we pride ourselves on Kiwi ingenuity but often there’s too much focus on the idea itself, rather than the commercialisation process. Our clients succeed because we help them understand that commercial success often comes down to how – rather than what - you commercialise,” he says.

This shift in priority helps idea owners to quickly maximise returns on product development and intellectual property investments.

“People usually make the mistake of using a narrow range of commercialisation and intellectual property protection tools, such as patents,” says Mr Adams. “One of our points of difference is that we offer objective advice that helps our clients understand how, when and what protection will achieve the best outcome.”

Seeing a gap in this country’s innovation commercialisation market, Mr Adams – who is highly experienced in the technology innovation and commercialisation field – formed EverEdge IP.

In three years the company has grown from one half-time employee to become a seven-figure business that employs 15 people. It occupies a unique space in New Zealand’s intellectual property commercialisation landscape and is one of Australasia’s largest non-public commercialisation entities.

Its core business involves advising innovators in sectors that include biotechnology, viticulture, aviation and nutraceuticals. Clients range from New Zealand’s largest corporates, and Fortune 100 and 500 companies – to public sector agencies, small and medium enterprises, and individual innovators and investors.

Mr Adams says his in-house specialist business, technology and law team works closely with clients to successfully execute each stage of the commercialisation cycle – from product inception to market expansion. The firm also invests in and commercialises its own portfolio of innovative technologies, ensuring its advice is grounded in practical reality and informed by personal experience of what works and what doesn’t.

Mr Adams notes that optimising an idea’s success requires getting technology beyond New Zealand to access global markets: “It’s easy to think small and stay small, but putting in the hard work to access large international players offers huge potential gains.

ENDS

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