Meet the team behind Banting Blvd. and Happy Being Co.
The Journey of our supplier, Banting Blvd.
Left to Right: Gabi Van Niekerk (Communications), Gail Van Niekerk (owner), Lizanne Van Niekerk (Brand & Financial Manager)
Our Seeds of Change, Food Lover’s Market Supplier Development Partnership programme is spending time on our suppliers, to tell the story of their journey. And, to hopefully aid other local suppliers on their growth path.
In this local, small business supplier we feature the team who created Banting Blvd, HEBA, and The Happy Being Co. A family-ownder business, who supplies a range of health food products from low carb, gluten-free, vegan, and Collagen to Food Lover’s Market, at affordable prices for our customers.
Banting Blvd. met with Food Lover’s Market in July 2016 and has grown since then as a business, and product range.
Food Lover’s Market took on the low-carb range and HEBA pap from Banting Blvd, and now stocks a range from Banting Blvd. and Happy Being Co. from low carb, gluten-free, vegan, and collagen products to Food Lover’s Market at a more affordable price. Check out the full list of Happy Being Co. products here, or find more details on Banting Blvd. here.
When telling us a little bit about the onboarding process of meeting with a buyer and getting onto the shelves, Lizanne states, “It wasn’t just submitting forms and emailing presentations, we really got to meet with the team and we felt we could grow a relationship with them and that’s what’s been most encouraging for us.”
How did Banting Blvd. start?
It started with low-carb premixes for the banting community, but the golden child was really the HEBA pap (now known as HEBA). HEBA stands for HEalthy BAnting, and was named ‘the food of the revolution’. HEBA is a low-carb flour alternative that is used as pap, porridge, low-carb flour substitute in baking, and MUCH more. Find out more about HEBA here, or try one of these delicious recipes using Heba.
Where do the ingredients come from?
There is a mix of different ingredients for the different products. Most of the ingredients are from local suppliers in South Africa. Some of the ingredients are brought in from overseas, like the flax seeds which primarily come from Canada, or coconut flour which comes from Indonesia. The sunflower seeds are found locally and grown by local farmers in South Africa. “We try to find the best quality ingredients, but we always support local suppliers as much as possible.”
Gail Van Niekerk is the founder and owner of Banting Blvd.
What is the social impact of your business?
Banting Blvd. has the opportunity to help people grow and develop in this industry. They started with employing young females who previously did not have any opportunities and giving them that, the development to grow their skillset and give them more opportunities for their future.
What are the top 3 important things to Gail as a business owner?
- Family – “My daughters own the business with me so it’s been amazing to see how they’ve grown and developed within the industry.”
- Food – “I am passionate about food so it’s great to be able to work with that every single day, you know there are so many aspects to the food industry that are exciting, and very grateful in this time to be in manufacturing” Banting Blvd. are passionate about making low carb, and other health products more accessible to consumers in South Africa, whilst still being very easy to use, and of the highest integrity (with no-nonsense ingredients.).
- My staff – The opportunity to help them grow and develop. “Seeing them all grow and develop really is a beautiful time of my life at the moment.” there are so many youth in this country that just do not have opportunities it was amazing to see the opportunities my own children had and then girls of similar age that had no opportunities and that’s really what we started the business with; was girls all of a similar age and just developing their skillset and that’s been such a major blessing for me to see how that has developed,” says Gail.
