It was not something Alexis Belton ever expected for himself.
Southern Clams, the pioneering Dunedin-based shellfish company, was his late father Roger’s passion while he had a successful career as a Wellington-based public servant.
Before Roger Belton’s death in March, 2023, Alexis and his two sisters had been urging their father to put succession plans in place.
But then he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he asked Alexis if he would join the company’s board — something his son could not refuse. What Alexis then discovered was that the staff were very welcoming and he could contribute quite a bit.
Working most recently in Treasury, and previously at the Ministry for Primary Industries, he had been enjoying his work but felt he was at a crossroads in his career.
Not seeing himself as a life-long public servant, he believed his options were either plunging into management or doing something different.
He and his partner, who have two young children, moved back to Dunedin early last year and he joined Southern Clams as executive director in October. He now joked with his family that his father found a radical solution to succession.
From humble beginnings, Roger Belton brought Otago clams to restaurants around the world after identifying the potential for littleneck clams harvested from Blueskin Bay and Otago Harbour.
Asked whether he had knowledge of the business by virtue of growing up with his father, he said he talked about it in terms of ‘‘osmotic pressure’’. ‘‘Reluctantly I knew more than I ever wanted to.’’
Roger was so committed to his work which did come at a cost to his family at times and it was as he got older that Alexis realised other people did manage a different work-life balance. He was also very values-driven, something that he imparted into both the business and to his son.
Alexis reckoned his father would be ‘‘stoked’’ he had joined the business and, for him, it was ‘‘just too good an opportunity to pass up’’.
‘‘There’s lots I can contribute here. I can see so much unrealised potential in the business. I’m really keen to have a go,’’ he said.
Under Roger’s leadership, the company made substantial investments to reduce its carbon footprint. One of his biggest passions was forestry and he was involved in five forests from Canterbury to Waitaki.
A new policy has now been introduced which fully offsets its greenhouse gas emissions with carbon credits from its own biodiverse forest in the Waitaki district.
That 92ha carbon forest was established near Livingstone and contained 15 tree species, including some native mountain beech.
Since 2011, when Southern Clams began reporting its emissions, its domestic activities have produced 3070 tonnes of emissions.
As of earlier this year, it has retired an equivalent 3070 New Zealand Units to fully offset its emissions over the past 15 years. At current carbon prices, that represented a cost of about $125,000-$130,000.
Alexis said the policy marked a deliberate shift.
‘‘Previously, we focused on offsetting emissions from sources that weren’t covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme. ‘‘With this new policy, we’re taking responsibility for all our domestic emissions and in doing so, creating a stronger business incentive to continue to reduce our emissions.
‘‘At current levels, the policy will cost us about $6000-$7000 per year and we expect that to increase as we improve the completeness of our reporting.’’
The company’s reporting currently covered domestic operations. A significant share of its product was flown overseas. It had looked at options like sea freighting clams to reduce that footprint but there were no viable alternatives to air freight at this time.
The next phase included expanding solar generation and monitoring developments in electric freight, with a view to eventually replacing the diesel truck used to transport product to Christchurch.
The company was closely monitoring the latest e-trucks coming out of China and the development of the truck charging infrastructure along SH1 between Dunedin and Christchurch.
‘‘For us, this isn’t about claiming perfection. It’s about taking responsibility, putting a real cost on emissions, and continuing to reduce them over time. And we’ve found that more often than not, investments that lower emissions are also good for business.’’
Southern Clams decided to time the announcement of its new policy to coincide with Wild Dunedin Festival, which the company has sponsored for the past four years.
‘‘The festival celebrates the ecosystems we depend on and work hard to protect. This felt like the right moment to open up about what we’re doing and where we still have work to do.’’
As a family-owned business, Southern Clams had a lot to be proud of. It had a good track record as a business and employer with about 20-odd employees, and it was committed to sustainability and ‘‘not just in a glib way’’.
Proud to be joining the team, Alexis said he came in with what he hoped was a lot of humility and he was incredibly grateful for the way the company had been looked after since his father’s death.
Brimming with ideas, he was impatient to see how things played out, although it was a business he described as being about patient growth.
He was working with the Nelson-based Cawthron Institute, which is focused on freshwater and marine research, to test the feasibility of growing clams in a hatchery.
Alongside growth was a desire for diversity, as the business was very exposed to one market. He hoped to grow the domestic market and also look at other markets.
There was a real opportunity to do a better job in New Zealand of telling the story of clams, how delicious the product was, and that it was very easy to prepare as a source of protein, he said.
Southern Clams is the parent company of Southern Seaweeds which was established in 2022 with the aim of stimulating the niche seaweed market in New Zealand and provide a premium product for global consumers.
Again, Alexis believed his father was ahead of his time by seeing the opportunity with seaweed and, while still waiting ‘‘for the wins to really rack up’’, he believed Roger would be proven right in time.
One of his goals was to take the company from being a classic founder-run business to being a more mature SME. That was about setting up the company to thrive in the long term and, to do that, you had to bring the people along with you.
Some had been there for two or three decades and they had so much institutional knowledge, he said.
Alexis was also involved with administering a $2 million bequest his father left to causes related to sustainable use of the environment.
The vision was to support local environmental projects and the first project being supported was the Halo Project’s initiative to restore the wetland behind Long Beach.
