{"id":513104,"date":"2026-07-06T22:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/513104\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T22:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T22:51:10","slug":"mussel-business-the-kutai-guy-moves-from-far-north-to-auckland-to-expand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/513104\/","title":{"rendered":"Mussel business The Kutai Guy moves from Far North to Auckland to expand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe only way we can grow is if we can export because the New Zealand market is too small and we need to get scale and size. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we landed, we either build in the Far North or we relocate somewhere. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe chose to relocate because there were more pros than cons. <\/p>\n

\u201cAuckland was the number one choice.\u201d <\/p>\n

Founded in 2022, The Kutai Guy is a family-run seafood business specialising in premium, hand-shelled, and traditionally fire-smoked mussels which are available online and via retailers and supermarkets nationwide. <\/p>\n

It also delivers mussel spat [microscopic baby mussels that act as seeds] from Ninety Mile Beach to mussel farmers across the Coromandel, Marlborough Sounds, and Tasman Bay. <\/p>\n

The business recently won gold for its Sweet Chilli Smoked Mussels<\/a> for the third year running at the Outstanding Food Producers Awards, which celebrate New Zealand\u2019s finest food and non-alcoholic drink producers. <\/p>\n

Reichardt said his four fulltime staff and six part-timers were given the option of relocating to Auckland <\/a>with him. <\/p>\n

However, they didn\u2019t want to leave the Far North<\/a> and are now looking for other employment, he said. <\/p>\n

Reichardt said he was going to Australia next month to meet a distributor then on to China to \u201cthe biggest seafood expo in the world\u201d where he will showcase his products at a friend\u2019s stand. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is moving along, we just need to find a place and set up a new home.\u201d <\/p>\n

Reichardt, who has lived in the Far North since he was 8, said he\u2019ll keep his house and 4ha property and \u201cwill still be home a lot\u201d. <\/p>\n

He would travel back to the Far North during mussel spat season from June to November, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m leaving forever, it\u2019s just to grow this side of the business; it has to happen. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s progress, you have to do hard stuff to get ahead.\u201d <\/p>\n

Reichardt said he hopes to find a 400-800sq m factory with enough power to run his operation. <\/p>\n

He asked that if anyone had a suitable property, \u201cto sing out\u201d. <\/p>\n

Jenny Ling is a senior journalist at the Northern Advocate. She has a special interest in covering human interest stories, along with finance, roading, and social issues. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe only way we can grow is if we can export because the New Zealand market is too…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,2546,138,11598,128037,528,71,82216,208488,220,8599,2686,121035,111,43,139,529,1067,69,3236,4497,223,61],"class_list":["post-513104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-awardwinning","tag-business","tag-expand","tag-exporting","tag-far","tag-from","tag-guy","tag-kutai","tag-markets","tag-moves","tag-moving","tag-mussel","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-north","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-overseas","tag-start","tag-the","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}