Fuelled by passion, innovation, and grounded in Hawke’s Bay
Back in the late 1980s, Sally Gallagher arrived at Massey University’s Open Day thinking she’d pursue a career in veterinary science. But a change of lecture plans – and a bit of curiosity – ended up pointing her in an entirely different direction.
“I was going to do vet and went to the introductory lecture,” she recalls. “The lecturer said, ‘You’ll either become a vet or a meat inspector.’ That put me off right away.” As she exited the theatre, she noticed another lecture underway. “I looked at the Food Technology session – it had all the sciences I’d already done, so I walked in. It just clicked. I switched to Food Tech right then and there.”
That moment set Sally on a path to build an international career in food innovation and to ultimately co-found Apollo Foods, a thriving business based in Hawke’s Bay producing The Apple Press, Boring Oat Milk and Picky – three brands now making waves across New Zealand and overseas.
From technical expert to commercial translator
After graduating with a Bachelor of Food Technology in 1991, Sally’s first role was with a small Christchurch company exporting flour and butter to Japan. The cultural and language barriers were immediate. “The customers didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Japanese. I even enrolled in Massey’s extramural Japanese programme but realised quickly that learning a language from a flat in Christchurch wasn’t going to work!”
From there, her career took her to the USA with the New Zealand Dairy Board. It was during this time that Sally discovered her real edge wasn’t just in technical know-how, but in how she could communicate it. “I’d go with the salesperson and found I could explain the technical side of the product far better than the salespeople,” she recalls. “That really set me on a path of taking my food technology degree into a more commercial space.”
This ability to bridge the worlds of science and business would shape the rest of her career.
A taste for startups and innovation
Sally found herself drawn to startups and roles where innovation was at the heart of the work. She worked with Kiwi Dairies to help launch a colostrum-based supplement company in the USA, and later returned to Hawke’s Bay to start a consultancy called Foad Ltd, where she supported small food and beverage startups.
“I realised I wasn’t the one to write food safety plans, but I could help businesses commercialise their products, scale production, and prepare for investment or export. That’s where I found I could add real value”.
Sally worked with the founder of the miniature apple, Rockit™ from start-up and this continued to spark her real passion for commercialising new products. It was a key turning point and opened the door to her next, and most ambitious venture.
The birth of Apollo Foods
In 2012, Sally met Ross Beaton, a large Hawke’s Bay apple grower & exporter, over coffee. “Ross said, ‘I’ve got lots of apples and I would like to add value.’ We threw around a few ideas – apple powder, apple snacks, apple juice – and I really thought that was the end of it.”
But this conversation turned into a long and successful business journey. Together, they made a bold decision: to build a brand-new, world-class production facility from the ground up, without having a single product on the shelf.
“We had no sales and built the factory anyway,” she says. “It was a huge leap of faith.” To enable the business model, Apollo Foods contract manufacture Mammoth and Primo flavoured milk ranges for Fonterra Brands New Zealand. This relationship enabled Apollo Foods the headspace to develop and launch their own branded beverages.
The Apple Press: a new way to taste NZ apples
Their first branded venture was The Apple Press, created with a clear purpose: to share the pleasure of drinking a Hawke’s Bay apple with the world. The apples are given the 5-star treatment – hand-picked at their peak ripeness, cold pressed just once, then bottled delicious. Many of the apples used are cosmetically imperfect and might otherwise go to waste, making the juice as sustainable as it is delicious.
“Everyone else was making stock standard juice from any apples they could find” Sally explains. “We went the opposite way. We highlight the flavour of individual apple varieties – Jazz, Envy and Royal Gala – and process them in a way that preserves that taste.”
The Apple Press has since grown into a beloved New Zealand brand, known not just for flavour but also for its sustainability story. “We’re taking fruit that wouldn’t make it to supermarket shelves and giving it a second life.”
Apollo’s second breakout brand is Boring®, a disruptive oat milk brand, and like many great ideas, it started with a challenge. “Everyone had told Morgan Maw, Boring’s founder that it was too hard to make oat milk in New Zealand. You needed specialised packaging equipment, and a whole new supply chain that didn’t exist”
When Sally met Morgan Maw, it was a meeting of the minds and an exciting opportunity unfolded. Apollo had the infrastructure and the entrepreneurial spirit. Morgan brought her passion for oats, a quality oat milk product and a disruptive plant milk brand. With Morgan facing barriers getting the brand to market, Apollo & Morgan joined forces. Apollo Foods acquired the brand and brought Morgan onboard to lead Boring and to bring her branding and creative vision to all the brands in the business.
“It’s a great partnership. Morgan gets to focus on her strengths, and the rest of the team take care of the manufacturing, logistics, and business operations.”
Boring is now growing fast, with exports to Australia and beyond. “We just launched into 1,000 Woolworths stores across Australia. That’s a huge step.”
Building a business with heart
Today, Apollo Foods employs more than 60 people in Hawke’s Bay, something Sally considers her greatest achievement. “That’s 60 families. We’ve built something meaningful.”
“We’ve had people move from being an operator in the factory, and some of our admin staff have moved into sales. I really enjoy watching the people grow and learn. That’s what it’s all about, if you learn, you’re motivated, and you stay engaged.”
Her leadership style reflects her grounded values. “I’m relaxed but direct. I’ll always tell you what I think, but I will also listen. I try to send out a weekly WhatsApp to the team – just updates, stories, a few laughs. It keeps us all human.”
The most rewarding part of her work, she says, is the relationships. “I love doing the deals. It's the relationships that you build. I go to a lot of different places in Asia, and I’ve got some good friends there.”
Sally’s connection to Massey also runs deep. Her degree remains a point of pride, especially in the food industry. “There’s a credibility that comes with a Food Tech degree from Massey. People know you’ve done the work. You’ve had to think across disciplines – engineering, chemistry, business. It sets you up to adapt and lead.”
For the next generation of food technologists and entrepreneurs, her advice is simple: “You actually can’t do it yourself. You’ve got to surround yourself with really good people, work out the skills you don’t have… and then get a team of people behind you to fill the gaps – that’s how it works.”