Anna Arndt - From farming to fish and chips

She’s been a natural at hospitality since she was thrown in the deep end of the deep fryer in Queenstown in 2015 launching a new fish and chip venture with husband Erik Arndt, former King Country farmers always keen to take on something new.

Fresh from 30 years in the meat business as farmers, then owning their own meat processing company, Anna and Erik had been approached to open a Mexican restaurant franchise in Queenstown.

“I researched the market here and knew a franchise would not work here as the rents were too high,” she says. “Our daughter, Heidi, was guiding for Funyaks and suggested a fish and chip business was more in demand in Queenstown as people had often commented that there wasn’t one then,” Anna says. “We didn’t even own a deep fryer. We knew nothing about fish and chips,” she grins. “So, we bought a food trailer to test the market.”

Turns out Erik’s Fish and Chips was a winner with not only late-night punters but local families and workers too. Within three years the business, fronted by Anna with Erik on the fryers, had won Queenstown Small Business of the Year and two New Zealand Hospitality Awards – one for marketing and a People’s Choice Award.

Erik’s pumped through hundreds of orders a night during the busy seasons. “It’s really hard to make good fish and chips 100% of the time – harder than you think,” Anna says. “It was incredible. The first night there was batter from one end of the trailer to the other, the biggest mess ever,” she laughs. “We opened on 1 December, leading right into the busy season. We had no idea what we were in for. It was so busy.”

By Christmas they were having their batter manufactured in Dunedin.

“It was a great 10-year journey, being among so many wonderful young people,” Anna says.

They worked seven-day weeks from 11.30am until 9pm, but Anna’s never been afraid of hard work. She still managed to find time to be a Big Buddy in the local Big Buddy volunteer programme. Erik’s also donated heaps of giveaways to community events and charitable organisations like Baskets of Blessing.

She says her accountancy background had proved invaluable in all of their business ventures, including their first together - purchasing a sheep and beef farm in Aria, Anna’s King Country homeland. “My father always wanted me to be an accountant, and it’s paid off.”

Sent to Epsom Girls’ in Auckland to board, sport was her life, playing for the Auckland Secondary Schools representative tennis and hockey teams, lots of carbo loading required. “One night we ordered 50 dozen buns on the school account and then met the truck and had a feast at 3am,” she grins. “Everyone chipped in to pay the school back.”

Anna then completed an accountancy degree at Canterbury University, representing the uni nationally in its tennis and hockey teams. A career followed, working for Unilever in Wellington and Hawkes Bay, the latter where she was the first female, and youngest, manager at 22, enjoying the luxuries of the separate management dining room with the top brass.

Always up for an adventure, Anna then did a three-year OE, including eight months driving through Africa in a Land Rover with friends, camping out along the way. “We only got shot at once in Chad in Central Africa.”

It was the days of aerograms – single, thin, blue sheets of paper, envelope and letter all in one, updating relieved parents back home that their kids were alive, safe and well. “We wrote home on those once every month or six weeks – no cellphones, and we’d occasionally call home ‘collect’ so that our parents paid for the toll call.”

Anna worked as an accountant in London to fund her travels, then for a season at an American ski resort in Utah on her way home.

Back home she met and married Erik soon after they met. “He’d dated my sister, but she deserted him,” Anna grins.

With grandparents close by and three babies in five years she threw herself into community activities, including setting up the local Toy Library and volunteering at Plunket. Anna organised a huge fundraising ball to build squash courts for Aria. “We raised over $10,000 – a lot back in 1988, and I starred dancing on the front page of the NZ Herald,” she laughs.

The eldest of four daughters, farming runs thick in Anna’s blood, and with it, resourcefulness.

After 15 years farming she and Erik launched Aria Farm Ltd, producing meat products for supermarket sale – a successful business that netted them multiple awards, including a TVNZ Marketing Award.

The business took them to Christchurch where Anna worked as a consultant, specialising in continuous improvement and lean manufacturing.

Farming and business have always had challenges but she’s still happy to pass on the wealth of knowledge she’s acquired, offering free mentoring to emerging businesspeople locally who are just starting out.

That’s in between visiting the six Arndt grandchildren locally and in Tauranga.