A Kiwi Original
A Kiwi Original is a video series, sharing uniquely Kiwi stories from people contributing to New Zealand's future.
New episodes are released on YouTube. Subscribe to get notified when new episodes are released.
Share Your NZ Made Story
Each episode is approximately 3-5 minutes long. While each interview is unique, there are key themes that come up each time including:
- The origin story behind your business.
- What your business makes.
- The people and skills your business relies on.
- The products that have been created and the problems they solve.
- How this business is positively shaping New Zealand's future.
There is no additional appearance fee for being featured on A Kiwi Original. This service is included as part of your NZMade or NZCode licence fee. For licence holders, the best moments of the episodes are shared with our 30,000 NZ Made fans across LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
A Kiwi Original - Glenn Yeatman | Solomon's Gold
Solomons Gold chocolate is family run, locally made in Tauranga, New Zealand, and 100% “Free From“ dairy, gluten, nuts, soy and refined sugar.
The vegan chocolate factory in Mount Maunganui, New Zealand, is run by Glenn Yeatman, who designed most of the factory equipment himself and has literally built the factory in New Zealand from scratch.
Glenn was a fourth-generation coffee farmer from Zimbabwe who during the brutal regime of Robert Mugabe, fled Africa for his life with his young family leaving everything behind, and they arrived in New Zealand with only a suitcase in hand.
Glenn’s coffee growing background led him to a meeting with Clive, who brought him on board to work for C-Corp in the Solomon Islands’ capital of Honiara. It wasn’t long before Glenn and Clive both realised these beans were something special. At this moment the Yeatman family relocated back to New Zealand to build a chocolate factory that would be called Solomons Gold.
Their cacao beans are grown organically in one of the purest ecosystems on earth, utilising growing and harvesting methods the Solomon Island people have used for generations.
Through the support of C-Corp they have been able to provide our growers with infrastructure and finance support to enable our them to sustainably grow fine quality single origin cacao, and create some of the finest organic chocolate in New Zealand.