I Am Rotorua – Liam & Janelle Bijk

I Am Rotorua

A mission to create more access to organic foods and products and educate others about organics, is what drew former Tauranga couple Johnelle and Liam Dijk to relocate to Rotorua and purchase Brown Owl Organics. They also knew living costs are more affordable in Rotorua.

“We moved from Tauranga because of the house prices and to us it was logical as it is only a one-hour drive from family,” says Johnelle.

“We never would have even had the opportunity to purchase the business if we weren't in Rotorua and the community here really did a good job of establishing organics, you know, creating the opportunity for us to even take it over. We became the new guardians of Brown Owl as of September 2024. So, we are trying to take it and grow it and help more locals to find out about us.

“People come in here and we are like, ‘Hey, how's your day?’, and they tell us that they’ve just been for a walk in the Redwoods or for a ride. There is a guy that comes over from Tauranga, goes for a ride and then stops here to do his shopping. There are also a lot of other community things like Sustainability Month, and a lot of our customers are on board with that. I think the initiatives that happen or are starting to happen more locally are really beneficial for us being here and helping us to grow as well.”

Networking and community in Rotorua tick the boxes

“I've been so surprised with just everything, it's such a cool, positive place, like if you look in the right areas Rotorua is just full of very passionate people. We have been surprised by the level of community within other business owners. I was self-employed pretty early into moving to Rotorua and there's a lot of opportunities to meet other self-employed people and that’s been really great with building friendships and networking.

“I felt like in Tauranga when I would go to business events and things there, the people weren’t as open. Here in Rotorua, they are so welcoming and would often say things like, ‘Tell us about your business and tell us about you.’ And you know, they want to help us. I think this is a great place as business owners but also as young people who are trying to succeed especially because we’re away from family.”

Liam says, “I was introduced to organics young so I was aware of it and I was also witness to pesticide usage. So, seeing that and being exposed to the actual business and the industry, I was like wow, there are places you can find just the food growing how it should be grown. Janelle got involved first but I was always in the background.”

Johnelle adds, “It felt right, and we didn’t have any other set plans for our career or where we were going or what we were doing so we thought, could we be happy living in Rotorua for however much longer, if we do purchase and take over this business? And we thought, yes there’s nowhere else we want to be, let’s do it.”

Liam says, “The committee that owned it, they were advertising for a manager, which is how I got in. So, I started part-time as manager, then full time and the option to buy was always there. They had put in a lot of voluntary hours over the past years, every single week, to provide the people of Rotorua with organic food.

“We’re in this because we want families and children to have access to safe, nutritious food that is not covered in chemicals or sitting on shelves for a couple weeks. We want to give people access and that’s our mission, our mahi for this period of our life. We want happy families and children who can then go in and actually focus in school because they are fed properly. We want to educate people because there is just so much [information] out there that people don’t know.”

Johnelle adds, “The perception is that organics are expensive, but you can actually come in here and get a whole lot. We are pretty competitive with our prices. We support other local businesses too with what we do.”

Liam adds, “Our future is to facilitate access to organics. We have added a lot more suppliers and a lot more places that we source products from. So, there’s a lot going on and we want to make sure that there’s enough available for everyone. We want to do it well.”

~ Liam and Johnelle Dijk, owners Brown Owl Organics