Our Story
Hi there! I'm Sam, Founder and Director of Country Co. Country Co. started as a business to provide myself the opportunity for self employment, to develop and grow my passions in business, food and creativity. We started with a custom built commercial kitchen on our dairy farm and have since grown this to have a Cafe in Cambridge with a larger team and a reputation well known across the Waikato. While this journey started as solopreneurship, this journey was not possible without the mountains of support surrounding me, that from the start, became WE.
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At Country Co., we are passionate about bringing people together over really good food. To share warmth, cosiness, laughter and connection. Memories and the sense of nostalgia around food like so many, stem back from my childhood. Visiting grandparents for pikelets on a Sunday morning, sharing fresh brownie for dessert. Some of the best times shared have been in the company of great food.
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After finishing school, I studied in AgriCommerce and pursued the original dream of working throughout the Agricultural Industry, quickly moving throughout the corporate world under some of the most renowned companies in New Zealand. My partner Justin and I have lived on dairy farms throughout the Waikato through this time to our current property in Karapiro as sharemilkers currently. While working in the Agricultural Industry, my passions for home cooking and baking quickly exceeded keeping this as a hobby.
In 2020 I began my Instagram page @countrco.nz to use as a place to share my creations, knowing some day I would use this as the foundations to set up something of a business with - wherever that would go. During this time, I also began Country Co.'s oven glove range which has since grown to have New Zealand's largest range of oven gloves available. While my focus has moved from this range with the influx of catering and food growth, we still sell our remaining stock within our cafe today.
In early 2023 I left my full time career to pursue Country Co. full time and grow the love of food into something special. We had a very great friend work with us to build the commercial kitchen which stood as Country Co.'s HQ. Our 6mx2.4m trailer provided an exceptional workspace where we prepared all orders for catering and at the time, the boutique bakery. The trailer sat permanently on our dairy farm, overlooking the serenity of the beautiful land as far as the eye can see.
When supplying other local cafes and premises with our food each day, an opportunity arose to take on another venue with a local golf club. Quickly learning the efficiencies of a team, my time became spent at the golf club to grow and improve our menu offerings and public reach with our catering further. Our reputation continued to grow and our orders were reaching large scale very quickly. To meet this scale, our team also needed to grow, but we required a more consistent daily flow to fill in inconsistencies to volume day to day. We secured a commercial lease building and we have fitted this out to operate as a cafe day to day, which also allows us to cater from the same premises.
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As we move forward, we continue to find ways to grow and scale Country Co. as a small, successful business. We value the many relationships we build with our customers and just love hearing how our food can create, or regenerate memories and the sense of nostalgia. Thank you for showing interest in learning about us, our story and supporting Country Co.
We see each and every one of you, and we thank you greatly.
