Page 20 - Food and Drink Business Magazine May 2019

INDUSTRY FOCUS
✷ GROWING FAST COYO’S NEW HOME
Fast-growing COYO invented the coconut yoghurt category in Australia only a few years ago. Launched into the major retailers 18 months ago, sales have grown by 85 per cent, with a new
kids range and hemp products being added.
The company’s Yandina facility began as a shed populated with a few small refrigeration units. CEO Andrew Eves-Brown says more were bolted on as required. “It was perfect for what we needed at that time, but now we are ready and rearing to go,” he says.
The $3 million relocation project to the Big Pineapple will boost the company’s capacity significantly. COYO is currently renovating the old colonial macadamia facility on the site to suit its high-care requirements.
The plan for the facility and its Big Pineapple location is to help kick-start the food tourism hub which will also provide shared facilities for food start-ups, Eves-Brown says.
A key part of the precinct plan is to share knowledge and experiences in engineering, export and sales and marketing, and also physical resources such as R&D, compliance, and cold rooms.
“By working together, we can better prosper the region and ourselves. The buzz, the camaraderie, and being part of something bigger than us is the real value proposition,” he says.
The big food collaboration
The Sunshine Coast’s iconic Big Pineapple is gearing up to become a food facility hub. Amanda Bryan reports.
THINK BIG: an artist’s impression of the $150 million revamped Big Pineapple.
A SUNSHINE COAST icon, the Big Pineapple, is preparing to be transformed into a food and beverage manufacturing and tourism precinct. Organic yoghurt company COYO is its first anchor tenant.
COYO is currently redeveloping a former macadamia factory on the 170 hectare site to establish its international base there.
Built in 1971, the 16 metre high, heritage-listed tourist attraction, looks much the same as it did at the height of its fame in the 1980s when it was Australia’s number one tourist attraction.
The planned $60 million food manufacturing and agribusiness precinct is part of a broader $150 million renewal project to transform the site.
COYO has grown 85 per cent over the past 18 months, according to CEO Andrew Eves-Brown.
The $3 million relocation project from COYO’s Yandina facility will boost the capacity of the company and also help kick-start the food tourism hub.
The site will also provide
shared facilities for food start-ups, Eves-Brown says.
“Planning rules are pushing food companies into heavy industry parks, but that isn't where food should be or wants to be.
“We have the ability here to marry food and tourism – to become a tourist destination and a food and agribusiness hub and we're happy and proud to be involved in that.”
A key part of the plan for the precinct, Eves-Brown says, is to share knowledge and experiences in areas such as engineering, export and sales and marketing, and also physical resources such as R&D, compliance, and cold rooms.
“By working together we can help the region and our businesses prosper, and this food hub really will be a bit of a blueprint for other regions.”
COYO and other local food and beverage businesses, which include Gourmet Garden, Buderim Ginger, Epicurean Products, Kenilworth Dairies, Brouhaha Brewery, Maleny Food Co, and Freeze Dry Industries, are strongly supportive of each other,
Eves-Brown says. So much so, they created an industry-led not-for-profit group called Food and Agribusiness Network (FAN).
FAN delivers a range of services to support its members connect, collaborate and grow. It is run onsite at the Big Pineapple.
FAN's general manager Emma Greenhatch says its goal is to fuel the growth of the food and agribusiness industry across the greater Sunshine Coast, an area
that takes in Gympie, Noosa, Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay.
It now has more than 280 members from across the food value chain.
With this in mind, FAN recently hosted a Meet the Maker event at the Big Pineapple.
Sixty five members showcased their produce, food and beverage products to around 140 buyers and other key stakeholders.
It included local supermarket groups, distributors, media, and local, state and federal politicians.
20 | Food&Drink business | May 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au