Nikki Van de Laar, founder of Superseed Crackers, has a great deal of experience in the kitchen having worked in bakeries, in catering and as a cooking instructor - she even had her own line of French patisseries specialising in macarons!
In 2017 as part of an effort to eat healthier, Nikki went looking for tasty and satisfying high protein, low carb snack options that were not full of artificial ingredients or sugars. To her surprise, she could not find anything that met her brief, so she started experimenting herself.
Luckily for us, Superseed Crackers was the result! Superseed Crackers are seed-only crackers with no flours or fillers. Just organic seeds, nuts, olive oil and natural seasonings gently oven baked. Nikki uses local products where feasible like lemons and Gisborne Macadamias.
“Our products have fewer and simpler ingredients. It's about more than just being honest about what's in our crackers, it means moving away from highly processed ingredients and towards ingredients from more natural sources.” Nikki Van de Laar
When Nikki shared her new creations with friends they loved them, so realising there was a gap in the market for her crackers, she approached Commonsense to see if we’d stock them. Our Kilbirnie was the first store to stock them and they sold so well they were soon available in all our Commonsense stores. Now you’ll find Superseed Crackers everywhere that quality, artisan food is sold!
Day-to-day Nikki runs most of the business including purchasing and sales, product development, marketing and strategy, although recently her “wonderful and capable” daughter Katie has come on board to oversee invoicing, dispatch of orders and to train staff on making and packaging the crackers.
Last year a key focus for Nikki was the reduction of food waste, as her crackers are brittle and easily broken in the manufacturing process. As a result, Nikki introduced a new Superseed product: salad toppers! Salad toppers are pieces of cracker which are intentionally rebroken to a smaller size allowing them to be sprinkled over salad to give it a crunch with added flavour – love your mahi Nikki!
