Page 10 - Food&Drink Magazine August 2019

✷ RISING STAR
RIGHT: Juleigh Robins with bush tomato suppliers Max and Ruth Emery at their Desert Garden’s property in Rainbow Valley, Northern Territory.
✷ IN THE SPIRIT
FOUNDATION TO
BUILD UPON
In 2001, Robins Foods developed its ethical supply chain model. Coles, a major stockist, approached them wanting to see what they, as a food retailer, could do to help Indigenous people. “It was amazing and very serendipitous,” Robins says. A close association with Coles was forged, with 10 cents from each product sold going into the Coles Indigenous Food Fund.
When the fund was dismantled, Robins established the Outback Spirit Foundation, funded by profits from sales in Coles and other retail outlets. The foundation works on the ground with Indigenous Australian farmers, supporting Aboriginal enterprises based on Australian native foods,
Robins says.
“At the moment,
we’re trying to raise funds for one of our projects.
“It's the Wattle Seed Project with Pundi Produce in South Australia’s Riverland, with a lovely young Indigenous farmer and his family. It’s a substantial project. He’s currently got 3500 wattle seed trees in the ground. We hope to more than double that in the next twelve months. He’s got a lot of other native food plants going in as well.”
Robins also sees big changes in the restaurant industry, saying they had always sold a lot into the sector but was “amazed” more chefs did not pick up on native foods earlier.
“It seems like we have a cultural culinary cringe and it’s taken people like Heston Blumenthal and René Redzepi, among others, to come in from overseas, find what we have here ourselves, celebrate it, and then suddenly it’s okay.
“It irks me because we’ve been selling these ingredients around the food industry for years
and years, but if that’s what it takes for the recognition, then that’s what it takes.
It’s fantastic that this happened to build that awareness. Shows like MasterChef have helped a lot too. I’m not complaining, but it has been frustrating.”
Robins says Indigenous people have also driven awareness, pushing the momentum.
MORE ROOM REQUIRED
Robins has large plans for the Outback Spirit label. “I want to triple this business in the next
three to five years. That’s
my absolute minimum. And I want to open export markets for us because I think that’s the path forward.”
The business’s growth along with its future plans have seen the company outgrow its existing facility. Earlier this year it moved into purpose-built premises in Dandenong, in Melbourne’s east.
“We’d run out of space, and it also wasn’t up to the standard we were wanting. We make all our own product in-house, so it was a very good kitchen, but the building had physical limitations.”
Robins says the new facility is “built for efficiency”, praising food process and facility design firm RMR Process.
While products are in Coles, selected independents and butchers nationwide, there are plans to be in Woolworths from next year. “We also sell into a lot of tourist places and Aboriginal corporations, such as Narana Creations at Geelong. Oxfam is another great outlet: they like the ethical supply chain.” They also sell a lot of product into the food service industry through hotels, restaurants, institutions, catering, Bidfood and PFD. Retail has got a slight edge but food service has been growing faster, Robins says.
“The other side is export. We do some very small export
into local Asian countries
– the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. We used to do more but pulled back as the kitchen in our previous facility meant we couldn’t increase capacity, so we let it go. But now we’re looking for how we can get back into those markets.
96%
IS THE LOWEST LEVEL OF AUSTRALIAN CONTENT IN OUTBACK SPIRIT PRODUCTS.
“We’ve been in the UK and the US in a reasonable way in the past, so these are two markets we know a bit about, so we’re trying to get product in there and China at some point. Our aim this year is to expand our export.”
“It goes without saying that we’ll keep working with our Indigenous partners, that’s just what we do, along with supporting the foundation.”
For Robins, it is about building a business to a point where it “delivers a nice future for everybody”, including its Indigenous suppliers. ✷
10 | Food&Drink business | August 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au