Page 41 - Adnews magazine Sep-Oct 2022

www.adnews.com.au | September - October 2022 41
did the market. The nursery that had been opened since 2010 was failing due to the worst draught seen in years. Cash flow was a major struggle. Upon an Instagram search one evening Cuddy scrolled past the BFTB campaign, a campaign that saw rural businesses being revived, and cash flow coming through exponentially. After using the Buy From The Bush hashtag, Perennialle Plants was signed on to the campaign as a listed
business in October 2019.
From October, the mail order system that had dried up in the drought
was seeing orders come through at high speed.
Cuddy says: “I went from looking to get a second job in disability care,
to having a staff of 17 people.
“Buy From The Bush meant that I could buy a Christmas ham for my
family. It’s not always about the major promotion, it’s about supporting local businesses and Buy From The Bush has been the platform that has done exactly that.”
When asked why he believed Buy From The Bush is so good, Cuddy said: “Buy From The Bush doesn’t discriminate. It is a system that allows anyone and everyone to throw their hat in the ring and participate. It is based on the premise of bringing rural beauties to city audiences. The attraction and want for rurally sourced and locally grown produce, handmade goods and service is at an all time high especially in these post pandemic times.”
Cuddy now employs full time staff, as well as an IT operator who takes care of the mail order system. The business is maximising community horticultural needs one plant at a time.
Buy From the Bush continues to generate revenue and income with $5 million made in the first four months for the businesses featured on the BFTB social media campaign.
Four months after the launch 40% of local businesses were shipping interstate and 19% internationally.
A specific focus for Grace Brennan is to see women dominating and leading the charge for successful rural businesses.
Brennan says: “These are all fabulous rural women, real go-getters, who have built unbelievable businesses under challenging times and conditions...they beat many city corporate marketers hands down. May not have the cash flow and the marketing budgets of the big guns, but they sure do get results,”
Founder Grace Brennan has set up Buy From The Bush to be a platform for rural business growth. Emily Burton, owner of Peggy & Twig and Chris Cuddy, owner of Perennialle Plants can attest to the success the platform has set
for their respective businesses.
"Our hope is that off-farm, women-led enterprises continue to grow and contribute layers of diversity and opportunity to rural Australia. If supported and ena- bled, they will undoubtedly play a critical role in rebuilding the Australian economy."
Peggy & Twig is a business that benefits greatly from BFTB. Designed and handmade in central Australia, Peggy and Twig is a pearl jewellery label which offers time- less design and thoughtful crafts- manship. Created and founded by O’Connell local Emily Burton.
For Burton, BFTB meant more than just an influx of customers to drive up businesses, since being fea- tured in the Buy From The Bush initiative, Peggy & Twig has since been featured in Vogue Australia, InStyle Australia, Country Style and Graziher magazines. In 2021, P&T has was named as one of 15 Beautiful Australian Bridal Jewellery Labels by WedShed. When asked why she thought Buy From The Bush is so successful, Burton said: “It is suc- cessful for a number of reasons, first and foremost, it is successful because of Grace and her vision of allowing city folk to acknowledge the severity of the drought in rural communities.
“For my business and so many others, it gave us much needed lev- erage after the onset of the drought. From that leverage, we were able to build momentum and not only save businesses such as my own, but grow and expand them as well.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without Buy From The Bush.”
Elton said: “At the heart of this incredibly successful campaign was the punchy headline that harnessed both the prevailing sentiment, as well as the linguistic power of allit- eration with the appealing repeated rhythm of the ‘B’ in ‘Buy’ and ‘Bush’. It’s easy adoption as a hashtag allowed the campaign to thrive on platforms like Instagram, driving $9 million in sales - which is un-petty cash in anyone’s language.”
Buy From The Bush is continu- ing to expand its outreach and drive sales. According to the latest impact report surveyed by Meta, the campaign has generated over $9 million in revenue for small rural businesses.