The Cereal Entrepreneur: A Story of Grit, Courage and Crunchy Goodness
Authors:
Kaz Staples
Publisher:
Ultimate World
ISBN:
9781922714152
Date Published:
04 July 2022
Pages:
272
Format:
Paperback
RRP:
$34.95
This is Kaz Staples’ story from humble beginnings. Strapped for cash with two babies at home in 1997, she decided to make Christmas cakes out of her home kitchen to sell at the local markets.
Some 22 years later, knowing it was time to let go of her baby she sold the highly sort after and successful cereal and snack brand. This is not a ‘how to’ book but an honest and frank account of her journey. It is Kaz’s story from the heart and how she navigated through the madness of growing a tiny seed of an idea on her own with no money into a well-recognised and trusted brand.
The cereal entrepreneur is a book about courage, grit, determination and never giving up on your dream. Even when others said it was not possible. This is the story about a woman and her dreams for her family, her love for her people and the deep love for her brand.
It’s about defying the odds, following your passion and always trusting your gut. And when the going gets tough roll your sleeves up and get on with the show.
About the author
From an early age, Kaz Staples was fascinated by cooking and by the age of ten was reading cookbooks like novels and making cakes without a recipe to follow. Kaz left school and had no idea what her future career would look like, initially doing a mixture of work including, retail, banking, office work and cold calling sales roles. She then did a stint working in her parents’ locksmith business and it is here she learnt the ropes of general business and what it was like being self-employed.
In 1997 that Kaz started her foray into small business. At home now married with two small boys, needing extra money for Christmas presents, she decided to do what she knew well and that was to bake. That year Kaz made several hundred cakes and a few thousand dollars selling them at the markets and on the counter of her parents’ business.
The spark of Kaz’s entrepreneurial spirit started to burn. With a ‘hard work won’t kill you attitude’ Kaz found herself holding down multiple jobs, retail fashion, party-plan jewellery sales, after hours modelling work and the new seasonal Christmas cake business.
Twenty-two years after Kaz’s foray into Christmas cakes she had built a remarkable market-leading brand in the cereal and snack space. In over three-hundred supermarkets NZ wide, exporting to multiple countries, attributing to 46% of the category growth in NZ in 2016 and becoming number one in dollars for her famous Raspberry Nograin-ola. After being told by many this was never going to work, these achievements are quite remarkable.
However, after multiple health challenges and family tragedies, Kaz and her husband Dave decided to sell the business in March 2019. Walking away from her cherished people and everything she had known for 22 years. In May 2019 Kaz received an Order of Merit at government house in Auckland for her ‘services to the food industry’, a fitting and well-deserved ending to her final chapter.
