EasiYo Products:

Atack Industries has had a long relationship with EasiYo Products. While not encompassing every aspect of product and process development, it serves as a good illustration of the way we provide services to our customers.

Yoghurt
Yoghurt is a well established food category in many parts of the world today. Typical products in this category are pre packaged ready to serve and portion controlled in the familiar foil sealed pottles. However for those who are consumers of large amounts of yoghurt this is an expensive purchase and those little pottles can’t be recycled. Additionally, because the life of probiotic bacteria in yoghurt is much shorter than the shelf life of the yoghurt itself there is no guarantee of getting the high culture counts that provide the real benefits of consuming yoghurt.

Our Client - EasiYo
The EasiYo system allows consumers to make fresh yoghurt at home. That means consumers are guaranteed high culture counts and the benefits of fresh yoghurt. Many of EasiYo’s customers make it daily for their families. The yoghurt maker consists of an incubator partially filled with boiling water surrounding a jar containing the liquid yoghurt mix which is left to ferment overnight. It takes about one and a half minutes to mix the powdered yoghurt with water in the jar and to fill the incubator with boiling water.

Fast moving consumer goods businesses thrive on innovation. EasiYo is a truly innovative vehicle for delivery of health and wellness products. EasiYo has used Atack Industries to develop all 37 products currently on supermarket shelves throughout New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, Taiwan and the UK.
EasiYo also uses Atack Industries for marketing guidance in New Zealand and Australia, and for setting up their US export strategy.

Their products Their range is based on the dry blended yoghurt mixes that are made up with water in the yoghurt maker. These have a range of fat contents and may be flavoured or unflavoured, sweetened or unsweetened. Premium high fruit content toppings were developed to supplement the yoghurt range as well as for use on ice cream. Since their primary use was for flavouring the yoghurt, consideration was needed in the balance of pH, acidity and sweetness for full flavour development while maintaining good yoghurt structure. Confectionery style toppings were developed to supplement EasiYo’s yoghurt ice cream. These toppings were made to be chewy like a piece of toffee at ice cream serving temperature while being thin enough to pour from the bottle at room temperature. These two styles of topping require a different understanding and approach to their development. The fruit toppings are closer to the ripples used in the ice cream industry although don’t they have the same stabilising system required for frozen applications. Whereas the toffee type toppings have their roots in the confectionery industry and are based on the correct sugar-glucose balance to give viscosity and prevent sugar crystallisation.

Idea generation
Idea generation is typically based on the existing product mix, consumer trends and changes, new ingredient innovations, existing capability, rough economic analysis, profit and volume expectations. Always in conjunction with marketing.

Evaluation
Given the known constraints within EasiYo’s production and distribution system, markets and product mix, many ideas and concepts are self eliminating. Those that remain are usually benchmarked against something. An existing product, a formulation or specific set of physical or chemical requirements. This may include packaging requirements.

Bench Testing
The next stage is bench sample formulation and testing. This is by far the largest component of the development process. EasiYo has a preference for an empirical, linear approach to product development. This is an intuitive, step wise progression where variables are changed one at a time and the outcome assessed before moving to the next trial sample.

Although not preferred by EasiYo the alternative is a less intuitive non linear approach where all the variables are changed at once in a factorial experimental design and the outcomes scored. The scores are then statistically analysed to produce a response surface together with an indication of ingredient interactions.

Cost and Nutrition models
It is at this stage that primary and secondary suppliers are identified and cost models, nutrition profiles and ingredient statements are developed. Cost and nutrition are easily revised and both are integral to prototype development. In some cases with contract packing least cost is the driving factor.

Storage trials
Once a product or a range of products have been developed storage and sometimes shipping trials are conducted.

Labelling
Atack Industries provide a label compliance service for EasiYo’s finished packaging artwork for each of the countries they currently export to. Each new label is checked against the requirements for that country and EasiYo is supplied with a signed checklist detailing compliance or non compliance as the case may be.

Scale Up
During prototype development, the manufacturing system may also be developed.
Although EasiYo sachets their own yoghurt mix they use contract packers for their topping manufacture and other new products. Atack Industries may provide technical support to EasiYo’s contractors during this new product start up phase.

Their Markets
EasiYo has one of the strongest brands in New Zealand. Fully half of all New Zealand households own a home yogurt maker. People love the company's products. Every week EasiYo receives unsolicited testimonials from delighted customers around the world. Atack Industries has helped EasiYo make full use of these testimonials - in magazine ads, brochures, and the EasiYo web site.

Atack Industries also conducted a thorough analysis of the US market for EasiYo, including:
Internet research of potential retail outlets and catalogues
Identifying and screening warehouses, distributors, brokers, and retailers
Documenting competition - product samples, prices, promotions
Attending the Specialty Food Show in San Francisco on their behalf
Coordinating with Trade and Enterprise New Zealand
Setting up export pricing spreadsheets to understand the market cost structure from manufacturer to consumer.

See client testimonials for what Kathy Light had to say about the US export research.


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