Multinational food ingredients brand Langdon is expanding in New Zealand Photo: SUPPLIED
Multinational food ingredients brand Langdon, is expanding in New Zealand with a more than $15-million development in Drury.
Langdon, which has a distribution presence in seven countries, commissioned industrial property and construction company, Calder Stewart, to build the 3,500-square-metre (sqm) facility on a 361 hectare site at South Auckland's Drury South Crossing.
The warehouse would have more than double the capacity of the business's previous site.
"Younger consumers are reshaping the country's eating habits at an accelerating pace," Langdon NZ country manager Kenny Pihema said.
He said the ingredient warehousing and distribution facility was responding to a surging New Zealand demand for third culture cuisine and Gen Z's evolving interest in foods popularised on social media.
Third culture cuisine referred to dishes created by people raised between two or more cultures who blend their family heritage with the food traditions of the country they grew up in to produce entirely new flavour profiles.
Over $15 million will be invested in the construction of a new ingredient warehousing Photo: Jesse Spezza
Pihema said many young people come from multicultural households and want flavours that reflect their blended identities, which was driving demand for global spices, botanicals and natural powders.
"Gen Z are the first generation to discover new flavours online rather than at home. Many of them are trying chillies, spices and global cuisines for the very first time through TikTok, food challenges and multicultural friend groups.
"That discovery loop is completely different from older generations and it is rapidly reshaping what manufacturers need."
He said fusion flavours were showing up in restaurants and ready to eat meals.
"New Zealand food manufacturers and exporters are among the world's most innovative however, they need access to ingredients that simply were not part of the country's pantry a decade ago. This expansion is a direct response to that," he said.
Pihema said global heat challenges, spice tastings and cross-cultural food trends amplified through social media have pushed named chillies, heat profiles and new aromatics into the mainstream.
"Heat is exploding at the moment, Gen Z are driving the chilli culture and experimenting at a scale we have never seen."
Langdon's Australian pantry offered more than 2,500 ingredients.
"Thirty years ago when we first launched in New Zealand, we offered less than a handful of chilli varieties.
"Today we supply more than 30 different formats and varieties. The pace of diversification is extraordinary and it is being driven by consumers who want global flavour experiences."
Calder Stewart North Island development manager Sam Smith said Drury offered clear commercial advantages for a project of this scale.
The Langdon expansion Photo: SUPPLIED
Langdon Ingredients had signed a long-term lease on the new 3,000 sqm warehouse and 500sqm office and canopy at Drury, with construction beginning in March and completion scheduled for November next year.
Smith said the building included a controlled aromatic zone and humidity management systems to prevent flavour contamination between spices, coffee, botanicals and other sensitive ingredients.
"When you are working with ingredients like chillies, spices and coffee you cannot risk aroma transferring into a dairy or bakery input. The separation zones and climate control ensure product integrity and support the kind of innovation manufacturers are now delivering," Smith said.
Drury fast developing with strong demand
"A similar build in locations like Mangere, Wiri or East Tamaki would cost around 30 - 40 percent more in annual rent," Smith said.
The Drury South Crossing precinct has become one of the country's most active industrial zones, with Calder Stewart currently developing facilities for major occupiers Briscoes Group and Wesfarmers subsidiary, NZ Safety Blackwoods.
The Drury's large format retail sites were 77 percent conditionally sold to big brand name retail stores including [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/578602/auckland-to-get-a-second-costco-store
Costco Wholesale], Rebel Sport/Briscoes and Harvey Norman.
"The new site sits on a high-profile corner with access for distribution and room for future expansion," Smith said.
"The facility's higher stud height gives Langdon Ingredients significantly greater cubic capacity than its Mount Wellington site, aligning the local operation more closely with the company's larger flagship Australian warehouse."
Smith said there was strong demand for development on Calder Stewart's land holdings in Drury, with about seven hectares of developable land remaining.
"We're in discussions with a range of both long term tenants and owner occupiers, with requirements from 3,000 square metres to over 20,000 square metres. As interest rates ease and construction costs stabilise, we expect activity to lift even further," he said.
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