What made you want to start Soul Boul?
Alex: Shortly after I graduated my family and I went on a holiday Bali where I quickly fell in love with the abundance of healthy food, fresh produce and beautifully presented meals I was eating, specifically Smoothie and poke bowls! I remember overnight deciding that this kind of kai was what I wanted to bring back to New Zealand, healthy delicious food.
After returning to New Zealand, I went back home to Kerikeri and honestly am still unsure how we got so lucky. I bumped into a good family friend who asked me what my plans were post-University and I told him I was hoping to open a food truck! His response was “I’ve actually got a food truck that’s been sitting on my property for the last 5 years, come check it out with your dad after work if you want!” Dad and I checked the truck out and it was perfect.
After brainstorming some business names with my aunty and mama, we finally ended up with Soul Boul. I messaged Stacey asking if she was keen to open New Zealand’s first mobile smoothie bowl food truck together and the answer was obviously yes. After a month, Stace handed in her resignation and we began our journey of co-owning a food truck together - a perfect little alignment of the universe coming together for us I reckon!
You’re about to open your first official shop in Papamoa, congratulations! I can imagine, like anything, that this process has had its ups and downs, how do you both deal with the curveballs that come with owning your own business?
Alex: It’s so exciting for us also and has been such a wild ride so far. This time has had its ups and downs but as I mentioned before, it’s so much easier always having someone you trust to rely on. The curveballs do come on a weekly basis, whether it be our blenders blowing up at a busy festival during breakfast time, having to reverse the food truck down one way streets or into tiny spaces, dealing with councils to meet food safety requirements, or cancelled events due to COVID but we always ensure we are sharing the workload.
Over the past 5 years we’ve only operated Soul Boul over the busy summer period from January - April and then closed down for the winter. We both travelled to Europe for 6 months, lived in Bali conducting some ‘research’, did further study and then geared up for the summer again. This was such a dreamy lifestyle but this will be our first year looking to do Soul Boul full time so keep the curveballs coming!