Page 12 - Food&Drink Business Magazine June 2019

✷ RISING STAR
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✷ RESEARCH RULES LOW CARB PROVEN
Luke Hopkins says there is a lot of dietary misinformation – including the health-star rating system – that can make it hard for people to navigate, and more research is needed.
“There are a lot of organisations that are just against low-carb diets, and the biggest reason is from
a lack of research, which I totally get because it’s public policy, and you need research to back up
the guidelines.
“But in mid-April, the Western Australian Health Department released their findings from a lot of research that they did that actually shows a low-carb does work and works exceptionally well for managing diabetes.
“The biggest issue is that that flies in the face of what DA Australia and the national dietary guidelines are saying. So they’re like, okay, we’ve got some research that says it works, but the actual guidelines are saying that it doesn’t, we need to fix this. So the public policy is changing, but it won’t happen overnight.”
“They’re not looking to educate people, they just want products that their customers are demanding. At that point their customers weren’t demanding low-carb, so there would have been no benefit for anyone, however, with low-carb now well accepted into mainstream, it’s something we’re working on getting into.”
EXPANDING EXPORT
The business began online sales to New Zealand and the US some 12 months ago as a way to reach out to its audience. In the next 12 months, it plans to launch into retail stores in both countries. “New Zealand is a smaller market obviously, but we’ve got reasonable traction there. We’re aiming to get into retail in NZ later in the year through a combination of health food stores and independent retailers.
“I think it often gets treated as another state of Australia – which I’m sure they love! – but our messaging and approach will be different to here.
“Then in 2020, we’ll begin export to the US. It’s an interesting space. There’s the likes of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, which are really large, healthy supermarket chains, so that will be our approach when we go into retail there.
“We launched in the US on Australia Day last year and again we’ve seen growing interest. The difference is their huge size discrepancies: going from Australia to NZ you can hold quite a large market share relatively easily, but to the US, even if you’re a big company here, you’re a tiny company there. So trying to gain market share within that space as an Australian retailer that’s operating exclusively from Australia has been a little bit tricky, but we’re seeing some good results.
“It’s a similar approach to NZ in that just because they speak
“This sets the tone for our new product development moving forward, with a fantastic selection of convenience offerings being released over the next 12 months, including our latest range we just released at the start of June. These offerings will better lend themselves toward supermarket and convenience channels.”
Hopkins says they’re not ruling out food service, but their focus is “to do an amazing job of helping Australians to eat healthier, and the fastest way we can help as many people as possible is through retail – both online and bricks and mortar”.
“We’re all about eating what you love – say, banana bread with your coffee in the morning – but having this better option one instead so you’re not missing out on the taste or experience. But the better option won’t ruin your day.
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“ At the end of the day, they want people to eat better and feel better, and that’s exactly what we want.”
English doesn’t mean you can talk to them in the same way as you do with Australians!”
While packaging into NZ retail will be the same as Australia because of the shared food-safety guidelines, packaging to the USA will be different to resonate with that market, such as using imperial measurements and calling pizza bases “pizza crusts”.
FUTURE GOALS
PBCo.’s vision and direction is to make healthy eating the default way of eating, and for that it needs to be convenient, enjoyable and affordable.
“We want to make actual healthy eating the norm. We want to demystify food and show people that healthy eating isn't about the latest fad-diet or the newest superfood, or just meal-replacement shakes.
We want people to realise just how good they can
feel when they cut out the crap and start eating the food their bodies need!”
Hopkins says they have big plans, and an even bigger appetite, to make healthier eating more fun, more affordable and more accessible to people from all around the world.” ✷
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12 | Food&Drink business | June 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au