Pik n Mix Lollies is NZ owned, operated and argued over!

Pik n Mix was originally started as a small side project; I was only ever looking to fill a few hours in my day!

My name is Robynne (pictured right), I have been a mum to 3 boys for 30 years. They've all moved out of home which left me with a lot of spare time on my hands.

Fast forward to today... Pik n Mix has taken on a life of its own! I had to bring on my middle son, Merritt (pictured left), to handle the running and development of the business. His wife, Daisy, (pictured centre) has also stepped in to handle general day-to-day operations.

Lollies are not all made equal and I wanted to ensure that ours had great flavour, quality and texture. I believe New Zealand has some of the best variety and quality available. We source confectionary from countries like Australia, Spain, UK and Turkey, as well as New Zealand.

If you like lollies too, you've come to the right place!

Robynne Watson
Owner

How did we start?

I was very fortunate to have been a stay-at-home mum to our 3 sons for 30 years, but they had grown up and carving their own way in the world.

I found that I had too much time on my hands and needed something to do, there is only so many lunches you can do with friends and I wasn’t into playing golf! I was keen to get a job, but didn’t want to be restricted to a set time frame, so the ideal situation was to create a business from home, where I got to call the shots on how much time I put into it.

Having plenty of computer skills, I knew I could build my own website, it was just a matter of finding the right thing to sell. I researched a lot of different products, but it seemed that everyone else was already selling them.

Why did i go with lollies?

I had seen a few English online lolly shops come through on Instagram selling big bags of mixed lollies. I loved lollies and remembered how I used to buy lollies from the dairy as a child.

I knew New Zealand had so many loose varieties available and maybe I could offer customers the option of buying individual lollies in small amounts.

And VOILA!!! 1st February 2020, Pik n Mix Lollies was created! I spent around $1200 building my own website, purchasing benches, scales, bags, stickers, what i then thought was a lot of lollies, and converting our office, at home, into a ‘lolly room’, all 2m x 2.5m of it.

Worst-case scenario, if this business didn’t work out, then my family and friends were going to be getting lollies for their birthday! 😂

It took over the house!

Covid hit just after opening and that was where the surge in sales initially came from. I posted everyday on social media and it grew from there.

I added more and more lollies to the range, took over another bedroom as a despatch/stock room and called on my friend Fiona to help me with the orders. It was no longer a ‘one-man-band’ operation.

Eventually it became too big for just 2 of us, and I had to employ more people and take over a 3rd bedroom, plus half the garage! 

Taking us to the next level.

The reality is that there is so much more to an online business than just selling and despatching bags of lollies - it’s what I call ’back room’ stuff; tools that help you build a business on social media, your website, apps & influencers.

The stuff you don’t actually see, but is necessary if you want to take your business to the next level. That is where my son Merritt came into the picture. He is very savvy with all of the above and if he didn’t know, he learnt it very quickly.

A family run business!

Merritt stepped into the role of Managing Director of Pik n Mix. He transitioned the website from Wix to Shopify, established our relationship with new suppliers both in NZ and overseas, refined our courier processes and continues to build the Pik n Mix brand to this day.

Together with Merritt's wife, Daisy, the 3 of us continue to grow Pik n Mix. Each week is different! We are always looking for new lollies to release from around the world!

Pik n Mix is definitely a family owned, operated and occasionally argued over business!