Freshly honoured and fit for a business future with a muscle-building product that has a Japanese blend.
Pulsed at the beginning of the year by now Nelson College graduates Roman Petterson, Adam Bone and Alfie MacNeil is ZenSha, a wellness company pumping out the country’s first matcha-infused protein powder.
The young entrepreneurs were awarded second-best company of the year at the recent Young Enterprise Scheme National Awards for “innovative thinking”, “strong drive”, and “deep product knowledge”.
Alfie says ZenSha provides the health benefits of matcha and protein powder in one drink with less strain on the bank account, and to be recognised for it at the prestigious event was a win for them and for Nelson.
“We thought the second place was a huge reflection of the hard work we’ve put in over the year,” he says.
“At the start of this year, my family went to Japan and fell in love with matcha, and initially, I was mixing it in my protein shakes, but found that it was very unreliable, inconsistent and not cost-effective.
“On top of this, we just saw a huge gap in the market for a product idea, because the matcha industry was booming and protein is bigger than ever as well.”
ZenSha now offers multiple flavours and accessories with products sold at the Nelson Markets, which were its testing grounds, along with online and local retail sites.
Based mainly from their homes, the matcha protein powder was until recently made and packaged in its 360g bags at now defunct The Food Factory in Stoke, so the trio are now looking at a commercial kitchen in Upper Moutere.
“We have a lot of momentum moving forward, made some great connections, and we are looking to expand it nationwide and get into many more retail outlets, and work on our wholesale presence,” he says.
“Then eventually outsourcing our product so we can really push bigger volumes and make it easily attainable for people across New Zealand and hopefully, eventually worldwide.”
The students’ second prize included $2000, as well as an additional $1000 for Nelson College.
