When Jessica Jones bought seafood manufacturing business Blackbeards Smokehouse in 2021, it solely produced and sold smoked mussels, fish and seafood from its Kopu store and at Coromandel markets.

With a background in food manufacturing and a passion for cooking, Jess has diversified the business, adding a range of ready-to-eat seafood chowders, pies, dips and sauces.

Blackbeards Smokehouse artisan smoked mussels are now also sold in a range of North Island supermarkets, speciality food stores and via its online store.

These savvy initiatives have seen Blackbeards’ turnover triple in just four years, since Jess made the decision to give up her corporate career and buy a business.

“After having children I didn't want to return to full time corporate work,” explains Jess.

“I saw Blackbeards Smokehouse was for sale and thought it was a really great product that had heaps of potential. Coromandel mussels are basically a super food - high protein, full of omegas and minerals and vitamins.

“It was supposed to be a part time thing, but it's not!”

Like many small business owners, Jess wears many hats. From recipe creation to smoking seafood, mopping floors, creating social media content, managing finances, admin and everything inbetween!

“I do love the variety and challenge of being a business owner but everything I've learned I've just figured out along the way,” she says.

As a self-taught business owner, Jess wanted to grow her business skills so applied for Regional Business Partner funding so she could attend Rise Growth Lab’s Food and Beverage Accelerator.

The accelerator is a 12-week online programme for food and beverage businesses to identify opportunities for growth and create a personalised roadmap to increase sales and profitability.

“It's just been a great opportunity to learn. I feel like I've been given a shortcut to business ownership! I don’t have to figure stuff out for myself anymore,” says Jess.

Jess says that, for her, the most beneficial aspect of the accelerator programme was marketing – particularly email marketing.

Since completing the accelerator, Jess has made improvements to her website to increase sales conversions and created an email distribution marketing (EDM) campaign.

These changes have seen her website traffic and online sales grow by 400 per cent.

“The accelerator has given me an opportunity to work on the business, as opposed to continually working in the business. So thinking about the bigger picture, taking a really close look at costs and profit.

“For a long time we have been chasing an increase in sales, but now my focus has shifted to an increase in profit. It's a tough time to be a food manufacturer – we’re seeing like costs creeping up – so having this time to sit down and work out profit margins has been so valuable.

“The funding and accelerator programme has been a huge boost to my business,” says Jess.

Blackbeards has experienced a multitude of challenges since Jess took over the business – the tail end of Covid pandemic, surviving winters when Thames doesn’t get a lot of through traffic, extreme weather events where roads into Coromandel were closed, not to mention a mussel shortage.

“I’m proud that we're still here. We're a very specialist, niche shop in a small town which is quite challenging. The fact that we're still going is a win in itself,” says Jess.

As for the future? Jess has big plans.

She’s working with a local seaweed grower to develop a range of edible products made from wakame seaweed such as pesto, salt, chilli oil and hot sauce. The seaweed is grown on mussel lines so there’s a natural synergy that Jess is keen to expand upon.

“I really enjoy creating products and new product development. It’s exciting working out how we can incorporate this fantastic, locally grown wakame seaweed into tasty and nutritious products.”

Jess’s goal is to launch the wakame seaweed products into the New Zealand retail market and, if that’s successful, look into exporting.

Check out Blackbeards Smokehouse products online or if you’re in the Coromandel pop in to see Jess and her team at 1B Kopu Road, Kopu.

Find out if your business is eligible for Regional Business Partner funding.