In this Season 2. wrap-up episode, I share the 3 reasons why and how Food Entrepreneurs, especially those from Small and Medium Sized Businesses, are succeeding in an unprecedented way versus traditional Big Food companies. Over the last 7 years, the most innovative and high growth products are actually coming from Food Entrepreneurs in start-up and scale-up businesses. These products account for less that 3% of sales in the market but are driving more than 30% of category growth. Some industry ...
Apr 20, 2020•15 min•Season 2Ep. 36
Richard Adamson, Oscar McMahon and Dan Hampton are the co-founders and directors of Young Henrys. Young Henrys is a group of brewers, distillers, musicians and artists, united in their passion for making exceptionally good beer, cider and spirits with a deep commitment to supporting their local community. In this episode, you’ll hear about a meeting of minds in 2012, with Richard’s experience in brewing, and Oscar’s hospitality know-how, prompting them to do more than just talk about their love ...
Mar 23, 2020•46 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Sam McFarlane owns and operates a social media and content management agency called Sam Says, which creates stand out social and online content for small and medium businesses and solopreneurs. Her philosophy is that no matter what business you’re in, if you're not social online, you’re invisible, because when you’re amazing at what you do, why wouldn’t you want the world to see it? In this episode, Sam shares the ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts‘ of social media, including how to create content pillars, maxi...
Mar 09, 2020•44 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Franziska Iseli is the co-founder of Basic Bananas, a marketing agency that helps small businesses around the globe to attract customers and grow through marketing education and mentoring.Their philosophy is that the more you upgrade your marketing knowledge and strategy, the more your business will flourish. In this episode Franziska walks us through how to create a simple and powerful 1-page Marketing Plan that will immediately focus and strengthen your marketing efforts. If you’re cynical, fe...
Feb 24, 2020•38 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Ryan Hartshorn is the co-founder, director and Head Distiller at Hartshorn Distillery, a Tasmanian micro distillery that’s the first in the world to make boutique batches of Vodka and Gin from sheep whey, a by-product from their family business, Grandvewe Cheeses. In this episode, you’ll hear how Ryan and his family ran the Grandvewe sheep cheesery for 13 years, before Ryan bought a copper still off eBay and against all odds, learnt how to ferment and distill sheep’s whey into Vodka. Ryan’s pers...
Feb 10, 2020•54 min•Season 2Ep. 32
Tristan Kitchener is the Founder and Director at Kitchener Partners.They’re a specialist consulting and advisory firm focused on grocery retailing and the grocery value chain for retailers, manufacturers and growers. Their goal is to increase product ranging, performance and growth of FMCG goods within grocery retailing. In this episode, you’ll hear from Tristan how to gain ranging within a major grocery retailer in Australia, who to speak to, what to prepare for and when is the right time to co...
Jan 20, 2020•43 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Hayley Blieden is the founder of The Australian Superfood Co., which is dedicated to increasing the awareness, accessibility and affordability of the distinct flavours and health-enhancing properties of native Australian superfoods. In this episode, you’ll hear how Hayley was inspired to research the health properties of native foods that were being used by indigenous sports athletes who she worked with as a sports dietician. Determined to harness the impressive nutritional properties of native ...
Jan 06, 2020•38 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Alison Swindells is the Business Development Manager for Australasia at thefoodpeople. They’re a global food trends and ideas agency who have a shared love of food & drink and a passion for gastronomic trends. Their goal is to help small and large businesses develop market-winning products and big food ideas. In this episode, Alison shares ‘hot off the press’ predictions for 2020 and beyond about global macro drivers and trends for food & drinks. You’ll hear about the two very different ...
Dec 23, 2019•36 min•Season 2Ep. 29
Tom Griffith is the co-founder, with friend Emma Welsh, of Emma & Tom’s.It’s a premium natural juice and snack bar business, that uses minimal processing, all natural ingredients and no added sugar to boost people’s health and vitality. In this episode, you’ll hear how Emma & Tom stepped out of international careers with a lot of knowledge about investment banking, Ag-science, Cordon Bleu culinary and financial marketing, but very little about premium juices. However, their commercial ac...
Dec 09, 2019•31 min•Season 2Ep. 28
George Gekas is the CEO and co-founder of Badalya, a Melbourne-based food and beverage catalyst that specialises in scaling up food start-ups into national and global markets. Badalya provides individuals and small companies with mentors and a team of professional experts to guide them through the next stage of scaling up their validated business, in the shortest period of time, with the least amount of capital. In this episode, you’ll learn when is the right time to think about scaling up your ...
Nov 25, 2019•35 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Francisco Caffarena is the co-founder with Michael Harder of Sprout Stack. It’s an indoor farming business, that’s set to revolutionise the way fresh produce is grown and distributed in Sydney. In this episode, you’ll hear how Francisco and Michael are driven to overcome the challenges of weather disruption, climate change and food miles, that face traditional crop growers. Their combined skill sets, in agricultural science, electrical installation and construction, made an ideal partnership to ...
Nov 11, 2019•41 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Tom Dawkins is the CEO and co-founder of StartSomeGood, a social enterprise that enables cause-driven crowdfunding, innovative partnerships and social entrepreneur education. Their goal is to get people together to help change the world. In this episode, you’ll learn about the key characteristics of a Social Enterprise, what makes for a successful crowdfunding campaign and how building a business with social purpose has the power to not only strengthen your business idea but also make a meaningf...
Oct 28, 2019•39 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Mitch Well is the co-founder, with brother Alex, of Billy Van Creamy, an ice cream business that makes natural, organic and vegan ice cream, just like you would make it at home from fresh and simple ingredients like milk, cream, sugar and eggs. In this episode, you’ll hear how Mitch and Alex’s entrepreneurial journey started with a home ice-cream maker and a gap they spotted in the Melbourne food truck scene for sweet desserts. With a little knowledge, a ‘can do’ attitude and a lot of personal s...
Oct 21, 2019•39 min•Season 2Ep. 24
Bronte Hogarth is the founder of Raise The Bar, a social enterprise which transforms spent coffee grounds from local cafés into coffee scrub bars with zero waste packaging. In this episode, you’ll hear how Bronte’s eco-entrepreneur upbringing and desire to lead a zero waste lifestyle, promoted her to step-change from a career in digital marketing to start her own waste upcycling skincare business. Her goal is to help reduce the 100,000 tonnes of wasted coffee grounds that are going into landfill...
Oct 07, 2019•40 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Welcome back, you’re in for another inspiration-packed season of the Eat. Drink. Innovate podcast. I’m Susie White, a product innovation coach, author and podcaster in Melbourne Australia and this Season I’ll be talking with food entrepreneurs, innovators and start-ups to get behind the scenes and find out how they’re building successful businesses and making their mark on the Australian food industry. And I’m mixing things up a little this season by also speaking with food and beverage industry...
Oct 07, 2019•4 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Hello everyone, I’m Susie White and this is a special wrap-up episode celebrating the end of Season 1. of the Eat Drink Innovate podcast. Instead of interviewing a single food entrepreneur, start-up or innovator, in this episode you’ll hear about the top 5 limiting beliefs about starting a food and beverage business and how to overcome these. Everything piece of advice is based on the combined wisdom of the dozens of successful food business founders that I’ve interviewed throughout the year. I ...
Dec 19, 2018•24 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Shila Barak is the Product Development Manager of Well & Good, and daughter of the business co-founder, Sam Barak. Well & Good is at the forefront of the gluten-free food industry. They create high quality, gluten and allergen-free flour and baking mixes of cakes, biscuits and bread. They also make allergen-free ready baked breads including, hamburger buns, baguettes and sliced bread. In this episode, you’ll hear how Sam was motivated to start the business after making a gluten-free cake...
Dec 12, 2018•36 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Nathan Wakeford is the co-founder, with Ben Kelly, of Somage Fine Foods. It’s a specialty beverage company known for their premium Kali drinking chocolate, Chamellia specialty tea blends, and raw goods like matcha powder and chai spices, which are sold through food service channels. In this episode, you’ll hear how Nathan mixed their first drinking chocolate in his Melbourne lounge room and twelve years on, this Kali drinking chocolate remains one of their best-selling product lines. To generate...
Nov 28, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Tahlia Mynott is the co-founder with Scott Turner of Made With Raw Love. They make raw chocolate and cacao elixirs with certified organic and wild harvested ingredients. In this episode, you’ll hear how Made With Raw Love is really a love story all in itself. On one of Tahlia and Scott's first dates, Scott prepared some frankincense and honey raw chocolate. The use of healing oils in chocolate was a source of inspiration for Tahlia and together they have forged an enviable lifestyle business. Ma...
Nov 14, 2018•43 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Andy Fist is one of the co-founders, with Shaun Malligan, of Kooee Snacks, which produces a range of healthy, high-protein, 100% beef jerky snacks made in Tasmania. Unlike many of its competitors, Kooee jerky caters for active, healthy people of any gender, who share the founders’ love of participating in outdoor activities. In this episode, you’ll hear how Shaun encouraged Andy to embrace his closet-obsession for beef jerky in New York, to start-up a beef jerky factory in Tasmania. Learn how An...
Oct 31, 2018•50 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Christy Loekito is the founder of The Wondersnack Co. which makes premium gourmet bar snacks in small batches, using real ingredients rather than flavourings. In this episode, you’ll hear how, as a self-confessed snack-a-holic, Christy was underwhelmed by the bland, boring and overly- processed range of salty nut snacks available and decided to shake-up this category with the creation of The Wondersnack Co. She set about making a range of gourmet savoury snacks from real premium ingredients. Aft...
Oct 17, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Krista and Rob Watkins step-changed their business from banana growing in Walkamin Queensland, to starting the world’s first pharmaceutical grade banana flour factory and launching Natural Evolution, a range of natural, nutritious, gluten-free superfoods. As second generation farmers, Krista & Rob wanted to diversify and de-risk their business. Like many primary producers their annual crop return was at the mercy of mother nature, boom and bust cycles of supply, with more than 20% of their g...
Oct 03, 2018•46 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Grant Collins is a mixologist, drinks advisor and founder of Gin Lane, Sydney. In this episode, you’ll hear how Grant ditched his passion for personal training early on, to be pulled into the exciting and creative world of hospitality in which he’s worked as a bar tender, bar manager, mixologist, drinks advisor, boutique consultant and bar owner. You’ll hear how, after having gained extensive bar management experience in the US and UK, Grant moved to Australia with his future wife, and drove the...
Sep 19, 2018•44 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Sarah Holloway and Nic Davidson, are the creators of Matcha Maiden, a range of matcha powder products and co-owners of the plant-based, sustainability-driven café, Matcha Mylkbar in Melbourne and Sydney. In this episode, you’ll hear how Sarah was unable to drink coffee for health reasons and became hooked instead on the nutritional properties of matcha power when working in Hong Kong, for its distinct flavour, high level of anti-oxidants and gentler caffeine level. On their return to Australia, ...
Sep 05, 2018•48 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Sallie Jones and Steve Ronalds were inspired to start Gippsland Jersey, an independent, farmer-owned milk brand, out of a desire to honour the work and lives of their hard-working, dairy-farming families. In this episode, you’ll hear how Sallie was spurred on after a personal crisis that saw her father Michael end his life tragically in 2016, followed by a crash in the dairy industry, during which major milk producers slashed the prices paid to farmers, leaving them in debt and despair. Gippslan...
Aug 22, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Life is short, bake that cake and eat it too! Emily Chhen was inspired to start Bake It Box in 2016, when she was caught out with expired baking ingredients when making a cake for a friend’s housewarming party. Emily realised that most people don’t keep their pantry stocked with all the ingredients needed when the mood or occasion for baking strikes. So after packing in her full-time bio-tech job, Emily launched Bake It Box to help overcome these baking challenges. She now creates comprehensive ...
Aug 01, 2018•42 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Make dinner in 15 minutes Harry stepped out of a corporate career in supply chain management to satisfy a personal unmet need for fast, fresh and delicious home-delivered meal kits. Rather than being daunted by big food delivery competitors like Hello Fresh, Lite’n Easy or Marley Spoon, Harry was enthused to be part of a such a vibrant and growing food service market, and created Feastively. Feastively gives people the convenience of home delivery and satisfaction of home cooking, without compro...
Jul 18, 2018•40 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Healthy office snack boxes While working as a customer experience designer in a large corporate bank, Ashleigh Whittaker noticed an absence of nutritious snack options when the dreaded 3pm slump hit. Rather than succumbing to the biscuit and chocolate options available, Ashleigh sourced a selection of unique and healthy snacks and created her own snack box for the office kitchen. In doing so, Ashleigh uncovered a bigger opportunity - to improve employee productivity, wellbeing and morale by crea...
Jul 11, 2018•41 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Simple food, extraordinary flavoursIn 2009, Jacqui Harvey purchased a fledgling local business, Yarra Valley Gourmet Foods.For the past decade she has built up an enviable portfolio of beautifully packaged gourmet salad dressings, jams, jellies, mustards, cordials, chutneys, relishes, mayonnaise, and vinegars. Made from the finest local ingredients, this all-natural range of products is produced in small, high quality batches. You’ll hear how Jacqui focused firstly on hitting the pavement and in...
Jul 04, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Save your skin, save the oceanIn March 2015, Zi Xie and Andrea Rampin started up a food business, selling high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oils. However, when that business failed to ignite, their olive oil industry knowledge helped them uncovered a new purpose and direction - to start-up a social enterprise called Ocean Deep.You’ll hear how they found an opportunity to re-purpose olive oil waste products and turn them into a contemporary, innovative and sustainable skincare range for eco-conscio...
Jun 27, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 7
