8 May 2021

Playing favourites with Pic Picot

From Saturday Morning, 10:05 am on 8 May 2021
Pic Picot and Fido

Pic Picot and Fido Photo: Supplied

Before coming to public attention as a peanut butter baron Pic Picot had already lived a full and picaresque life.

By the time he was 21, he had earned enough from making leather goods to pay for his first OE. Back in New Zealand, he took to furniture-making, learning the trade from an English craftsman.

 

He quickly learned that giftware sold better at Christmas than bespoke tables. Pic's Panic Packs – glass-fronted emergency boxes of tea-bags, cigarettes, condoms, and toilet paper – proved quick to make and were easy and fun to sell.

 

It wasn't until he had retired that he started making peanut butter. He sold a few jars at the local farmers' market. 

 

Twelve years later he opened his third factory, Pic's Peanut Butter World. Today he employs 50 people and exports throughout the world.

 

He's just released a book: Pic: Adventures in Sailing, Business and Love.

 

He shares some of his favourite songs with us.