Page 26 - Food&Drink magazine April-May 2023

ORGANICS & NATURALS
Micro dairy, grand award
Melbourne’s only micro-dairy, St David Dairy, was recently awarded champion in the Modified Milk category of the Australian Grand Dairy Awards. Kim Berry asks CEO Mancel Hickey about the win.
LATE last year, Maggie Beer Holdings sold St David Dairy (SDD) to Goulburn Valley Creamery for $1.6 million. At the time, Mancel Hickey said he wanted to ensure the micro- dairy’s proud tradition and see it thrive in the years ahead.
SDD is a micro dairy – what does that mean?
St David Dairy started with the aim of bringing premium, ultra-fresh milk back to the inner city. It is an artisan facility deliberately designed for premium processing. Our retail shop is unique and connects us with the community – every day, people come by to get their milk in refillable glass bottles as well as our other delicious products, fresh from the factory.
It’s based in Fitzroy, but where are the cows!?
We source our milk as locally as possible, including our long-term suppliers Rose and
Glenn Atherton who farm at the base of the Strezlecki Ranges, only around 100 kilometres from the dairy.
You’ve just taken out top prize in the grand awards – what made SDD stand out?
It all comes down to the skill and expertise of our team. We have highly qualified butter makers and skilled processing operators, and the ingredients we use are all premium suppliers. We have a culture (pun intended!) of working together to apply our expertise so that we can share the best quality produce you can find.
The milk sector seems particularly volatile at the moment, how is SDD managing that?
The conditions in the sector have been challenging for everyone, with record high farmgate milk prices, increased freight charges and inflationary
ABOVE: St David Dairy takes out top prize at the Grand Diary Awards.
LEFT: St David Dairy CEO Mancel Hickey
pressures across inputs. We are trying to minimise these where possible, working closely with our suppliers to adjust where we can. Our customer relationships are key, and we are making sure to keep the lines of communication open, to work together to reduce impacts as much as possible. ✷
COYO cracks into frozen yoghurt
Australian organic yoghurt company COYO is expanding its reach in the frozen aisle, launching a new range of dairy free frozen yoghurts, made using organic fruit and probiotics.
COYO says its new range of frozen yoghurts is the only plant-based, pre and probiotic option available in Australia.
Every tub of COYO Organic Frozen Yoghurt is dairy free, gluten free, and contains probiotics and chicory root fibre. The frozen yoghurts are made with COYO’s award- winning yoghurt, which uses sustainably sourced coconut.
COYO was founded by Henry and Sandra Gosling and when launched was one of the world’s first organic coconut yoghurts.
Sandra Gosling says founding the business was a leap of faith, but she knew if they could get pre and probiotics into the yoghurt, combined with coconut’s nutritional benefits,
the product would succeed. When Food & Drink Business
spoke to Gosling in late 2022, she said, “Being the first to market and disrupting the status quo has its challenges. It puts a target on you and authorities or regulators come after you to make a point or a test case. You have no reference point and really have to draw the map.”
Fast forward to the frozen yoghurt launch and Gosling says she hopes COYO’s success will encourage the retail industry to include more options that inspire a positive food future for all.
“At COYO, we want to break the stigma that opting for dairy free means sacrificing on health and taste benefits.
“By expanding into the frozen yoghurt category, we are proud to offer a high quality, plant based probiotic option to consumers that helps them prioritise their personal health, that is also a delightful treat to dig into,” Gosling says.
COYO’s Organic Dairy Free Frozen Yoghurt is available in two flavours, Mango and Wild Berry, in 500ml tubs at select independent retailers around Australia. There are more flavours in development. ✷
26 | Food&Drink business | April/May 2023 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
COYO has launched with two flavours, Mango and Wildberry, with more in the pipeline.