Proudly Homegrown
New Zealand’s Homegrown Juice Company has quite the presence in our supermarket fridges and shelves thanks to a wide range of juices, fruit and vege blends, smoothies and shots.
Disappearing off the shelves pretty smartly are products like Lemon Honey Ginger, Immunity, Pro Bio Mango Smoothies, Berry Anti Ox and the 100% Pure OJ - all are popular staples of Kiwi households and all can proudly proclaim “great taste – great health”.
Homegrown Juice Company’s National Sales Manager Russell Holt says the company’s goal is to produce the best tasting, healthiest juices and smoothies possible for New Zealanders. In fulfilling that aim Homegrown uses a “cold pasteurisation” process that sets them apart and has added a new benchmark in the NZ juice market.
While almost all other juices in NZ are pasteurised using heat, this process is rejected by the Homegrown team who believe it compromises vitamins, minerals and flavour. Instead, they favour a cold pasteurisation process, for which they have earned the trust of many a NZ consumer.
“We use High Pressure Processing (HPP) Cold Pasteurisation to maintain the natural taste and nutritional goodness of our fruit. RAW juice is put under extreme pressure to deactivate naturally occurring bacteria, yeast and moulds with miniscule changes to the vitamins, minerals and flavour,” Russell is proud to say.
In short, Homegrown juice remains committed to producing the freshest tasting, cold-pressed, HPP-protected juice that tastes as close to nature as possible,” he adds.
Sales would indicate that taste is pretty good! Homegrown Juice can boast market leadership as the company holds 60 per cent of New Zealand’s chilled juice market. The remaining 40 per cent is made up of the heat-treated (thermal processed) juices mentioned above, including some imported from Australia.
The company is called Homegrown for a reason. In fulfilling its “best tasting, healthiest juices and smoothies possible” motto, The Homegrown Juice Company grows its own oranges and, wherever possible, sources NZ ingredients to control quality and deliver the best, every time.
“Most orange juices in NZ are made from imported orange juice – some of which is even bottled overseas. This goes against our philosophy. We believe you can’t make great tasting, nutritious juice when it has been shipped halfway around the world.
“So, we did something about it and increased our plantings to the point where we now have the largest plantings of orange orchards in NZ,” says Russell. It helps enable the company to declare its RAW Cold Pasteurized Fruit and Veggie Juices are made from predominantly local and only some imported ingredients.
The orange orchards are located in Gisborne and Hawkes Bay. In fact, it all started in the Hawke’s Bay, when the Brownlie family first planted their orange orchard in that sunny fruit bowl of NZ back in 1969. Steve Brownlie continues this legacy under the Homegrown Brand.
It’s not just about oranges, however. The likes of grapefruit, lime, apple, kale and raw fruit smoothies and vege juices are all in the mix, along with treasures like turmeric, with combinations available in 400ml, 1 litre and 1475ml bottles (plus shot sizes of some).
While there’s already a wide product range to please, the Homegrown NPD team is always looking for new and innovative healthy products, in line with global trends, to develop for their growing local customer base, Russell says.
NPD and distribution are both ticking boxes. The company is proud of its robust distribution network that ensures direct delivery of its chilled juices and smoothies. And the full product range reaches retail and foodservice customers on time all year round. How good is all that!
(August 2025 Supermarket News)