Celebrating 30 vegetarian years of Bean Supreme, with original founder Paul Johnston!

Image caption:  Paul Johnston

No-one promotes the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle better than the original founder of Bean Supreme, Paul Johnston – a youthful 59-year-old pioneer of all things vegetarian and one of the first Kiwis to bravely introduce tofu to a meat-loving New Zealand.  Thirty years ago, Paul’s vision of a high protein plant-based diet was ridiculed.

“At that time (1980s) you could only find one vegetarian product in a can on New Zealand supermarket shelves,” Paul remembers. “It wasn’t until I travelled to the US that I was introduced to chickpea, tofu and soy products and saw how far behind we were in New Zealand when it came to nutritious, high protein meat-free alternatives.”


Paul surfing

An avid surfer and lover of the outdoors, Paul experimented with a plant-based vegetarian diet in his 20s for health reasons and quickly became a tofu devotee. Paul was motivated to start making his own soybean products and today, Bean Supreme sells almost 700,000 product units in New Zealand supermarkets every year – tofu is trendy!

Bean Supreme 30TH Anniversary Company Milestones

• In 1984 Bean Supreme was the first to launch block tofu, establishing the first chilled vegetarian category in NZ.
• In 1986 Bean Supreme grows its product range to 6 in NZ
• Today, Bean Supreme has a total of 16 products in its NZ range and exports 9 products to Australia**.
• Kiwis purchase 634,607 units of tofu in NZ supermarkets each year (exc. Chinese supermarkets)**.
• In NZ, the total Vegetarian category has increased to 45 active products across both chilled and frozen ranges**.

Bean Supreme has decided to celebrate their 30th anniversary and also mark *World Vegetarian Month in October by officially partnering with the Royal New Zealand SPCA to support their animal welfare program and annual collection week 3rd – 9th Nov.

The Bean Supreme brand was built on animal-friendly & sustainability principles, so forming a long-term relationship with the RNZSPCA is a natural fit. To mark this relationship, all Bean Supreme packaging will soon carry an endorsement from the SPCA and Bean Supreme will donate money to the charity each month.

Bean Supreme is committed to sustainability and to continually evaluate and improve their practises to ensure that they reduce the impact they have on the planet and its resources. For example they recycle all their paper and packaging and use non-GM soybeans for all Bean Supreme products, with the exception of Bean Supreme Organic Tofu for which they use non-GM certified organic soybeans.

Bean Supreme is 100% Kiwi owned and is a loyal supporter of using locally sourced ingredients. Only as little as ten years ago you couldn’t find a commercial soy bean grower in New Zealand. Bean Supreme initiated & nurtured a partnership with a NZ grower from North Canterbury to produce locally-grown soy beans. This first crop in 2008 supplied 10% of Bean Supreme’s soybean requirements and today, NZ-grown soybeans make up 30% – 40% of their supply depending on seasonal variance”.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Johnston sold Bean Supreme to Life Health Foods (LHF) in 2006, today he is a valued member of Life Health Foods Senior Management Team.

*October is World Vegetarian Month, established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and endorsed by the international Vegetarian Union in 1978. October 1st is the official annual date.

**Data Source: Aztec MAT to 28/08/14

STOCKIST DETAILS: Bean Supreme products are stocked at all good supermarkets nationwide, or visit www.beansupreme.co.nz for further information.