Gary Hannam
CEO of the Olivado Group of companies, Gary Hannam, is a man who cannot sit still, constantly bringing new products and innovative ideas to the marketplace. The 58 year old New Zealander combines his entrepreneurial, creative and managerial skills not only in the management and promotion of the Olivado Natural Nutrition brand, but also as an international film producer and financier.
His family had been North Island dairy farmers for generations. Hannam showed his entrepreneurial flair at an early age, raising finance for the first film of a friend and fellow student while still at university. He studied business and economic development at Wellington’s Victoria University, incorporating a three-month visit to Central America into his Honours Year to gain a firsthand understanding of development issues there. He taught marketing and international business at Victoria University for three years, then went on to become a leading figure in the emergence of New Zealand film in the 1980s, both as financier and producer.
Europe beckoned in 2001, when he moved his operation first to Germany, establishing the first of several film funds there, and then to Switzerland, where he now lives in a home on the lake of Lucerne, in what he describes as perhaps the most beautiful place in the world.
In 2005 he saw the realisation of a 25-year dream with the completion of “The World’s Fastest Indian”, a film starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro, an eccentric New Zealander whose tenacious optimism lead him to fulfill his dream of racing his modified Indian motorbike to a world record. Every bit as tenacious as their subject, Hannam and director, writer and co-producer Roger Donaldson had developed the script soon after the international success in 1981 of Donaldson’s first film “Smash Palace”, also executive-produced by Hannam. “The World’s Fastest Indian” has since broken box office records in New Zealand, and the DVD is acquiring cult status amongst film buffs and motorcyclist alike.
That determination and passion for excellence now goes into the international expansion of the Olivado Natural Nutrition brand. Hannam’s involvement with Olivado goes back to 2002, when he joined the burgeoning company as an investor. At that time Olivado New Zealand was already winning recognition both in New Zealand and internationally for the quality of its product and its marketing. Olivado International now has its own sales teams in the UK and Europe, and in the USA, Japan and Korea.
The Olivado brand is firmly rooted in the belief that consumers should be able to buy healthy and reliable products on the supermarket shelves. “People these days recognise the significant benefits of eating a healthy diet, rather than swallowing supplements. Eating the right sort of food should be a pleasurable experience”, asserts Hannam. He is passionate about his product, emphasising the quality of the processing (Olivado produces only natural cold pressed oils, with no additives, in a process developed by and unique to Olivado).
As distribution internationally has increased, so has the need to source more avocados, to supplement the supply in New Zealand. After researching supplies in South America and other parts of Africa, the company settled on Kenya as a suitable country in which to set up its organic and fair trade operation. With interim financial backing from Hannam’s Swiss company, Tanlay AG, Olivado Kenya (EPZ) Ltd came into being in 2007. Now, over 464 small farmers in Kenya’s central highlands have been certified as having organic and fair trade status, with a further 160 farmers in the process of gaining certification. Olivado Organic and Fair Trade Avocado Oil from Kenya is now being introduced to Olivado’s existing and new markets internationally.
