Comforts Of Home w/ Eliana Glover
Eliana Glover is the talented founder and director of Hill Street Wholefoods, creating sleek and delicious whole food baking mixes available on supermarket shelves around the country. With a variety of products designed to make the clean home baking experience as straightforward and fun as possible, the end results truly taste as good as they look.
Growing up around the Nelson region, I recognised the Hill Street name right away. Eliana pays homage to the well known Richmond street, saying “My family home is on Hill St, it’s where I grew up and is a place that holds a lot of great memories, most of which include food!”
With a background in marketing, her first foray into the fast-moving consumer goods industry has proven a successful one. We were delighted to try the Choc Peanut Butter Afghans Eliana kindly sent to us (watch the video here) and can confirm these bad boys are the best home cooking we’ve done, right up there with our lockdown sourdough.
Hi Eliana! So nice to chat to a fellow Nelsonian (can I still call myself that having lived in Wellington for the past nine years?) We love your whole food baking mixes, how did it all begin?
Haha of course, I still claim it after ten years, especially when I’m travelling in the South Island! It all started in 2017 when I was living in Sydney, I started to really notice the shift in the type of sweet treats people were consuming. A number of my friends had to avoid certain allergens, or were looking to cut back on sugar and processed ingredients. All of those preferences made it pretty tricky (and expensive) to whip up some home baking that would keep everyone happy, I figured there had to be an easier way!
After a lot of research around existing brands, food trends and overseas markets I decided to move back to NZ and give it a go. With no FMCG experience I had absolutely no idea what I was doing half the time, I remember Googling things like ‘how do I get a product barcode?’. My family and friends were a huge help when it came to product testing, feedback and industry knowledge. Couldn’t have done it without them really!
Your branding, packaging and product are all on point. Was there a bit of a gap in the market and how did you identify that originally?
Absolutely. The needs of the modern baker differ hugely from those of the past. We’re more focused on cleaner, healthier options, we look at the environmental impact of our purchases and want to provide options that are inclusive so our allergy-impacted friends can enjoy them too. Bottom line? We’re making more considered food purchases. The baking mix category hadn’t evolved to reflect that, creating a real gap for a brand like Hill St Wholefoods to come in and shake things up.
In terms of packaging we looked to other industries for inspiration—skin care, homewares and fashion brands we loved. I saw no reason why we couldn’t bring some of that clean, minimalist design to the supermarket shelves.
Above all, I put my imaginary customer first when making every decision. What would make them excited and proud to bake with our mixes? I wanted to break the stigma that baking from a packet mix was a bad thing and tried to remove as many of those purchase barriers as possible.
“We’re making more considered food purchases. The baking mix category hadn’t evolved to reflect that, creating a real gap for a brand like Hill St to come in and shake things up.”
So, we made a batch of your latest release, the Choc Peanut Butter Afghans in collaboration with our friends at Pic’s, and I have to say it was by far the easiest and most natural from-the-box baking I’ve ever done—so fun! What was the process for this collab like?
The team at Pic’s have been absolutely amazing to work with from the get go. They gave me a lot of creative license which was great, the final concept of a Choc Peanut Butter Afghan was quite different to what I had initially pitched them. I love that Pic and the team are so supportive of Nelsonians trying to do new, innovative things in the food space.
You only launched last year and yet the mixes seem to be everywhere right now, from the big grocery stores to high end boutiques. What do you think has been the key to such fast growth?
Putting our customer first and creating a product that people are genuinely excited to bake with. We have been lucky to be in the unique position where stores and supermarkets have approached us with requests to stock our products rather than the other way around. I believe a lot of that is thanks to our customers spreading the word and requesting our products at their local stores.
How do you come up with the recipes for your mixes? Is it all hands-on testing in the kitchen, consulting professional bakers, staring blankly into the pantry, or something else?
It’s a real mix of all of the above. We typically come up with a concept we think will be cool and then brainstorm some base recipes. From there we get a recipe developer to work out the kinks. We finish off the process by retesting and tweaking again. Some products have been really easy, others we’ve tested and retested what feels like hundreds of times!
“I believe a lot of [the growth] is thanks to our customers spreading the word and requesting our products at their local stores.”
I presume you’re an avid baker yourself, what’s your favourite thing to make at home?
Bit of a confession here, but I’m actually not. I had people laugh in my face when I told them of my plans to launch a range of baking mixes. Quite a few said “but are you even good at baking?”. I think being someone who loves quick and easy baking has meant that all our products are exactly that. It seems to be something that really resonates with our customers! But I’m really enjoying having the time to bake bread from scratch at the moment, Focaccia is my current favourite.
What’s your least favourite?
Anything I have to bake under pressure (or when I’m trying to impress). It’s like all of a sudden the thing I’ve baked a million times over turns into a disaster!
You worked with Smack Bang Designs on the brand identity, they’ve done a great job! What was the best part about this process?
I’d always fangirled over Smack Bang Designs and the amazing work they do, so when it came to choosing a branding agency it was a no-brainer. From day dot they took the time to understand what I wanted to achieve and consistently deliver amazing concepts (wait until you see what we’ve got coming up next!). It helps that they’re a genuinely awesome group of people!
Okay, one last thing before you go:
Double chocolate or triple chocolate cookies?
I’m going to deviate from the question sorry! I’d go choc with dried fruit every day of the week (choc + apricot or white choc + cranberries).
Most underrated item on an entertaining food platter?
Cornichons (mini gherkins) and our seed crackers obviously.
Best thing about Nelson in Winter?
There are so many amazing walks around Nelson. I try to do a different walk every day I’m home, it’s the perfect start to a crisp, sunny Winter’s day. Heading up into the Richmond Hills is an easy go to for me.