Page 25 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

BROUGHT TO YOU BY
A spirit embracing the outback
Pioneers of the native food industry Ian and Juleigh Robins have worked tirelessly to support Indigenous communities with their Outback Spirit brand.
IN the early 1990s, Ian and Juleigh Robins closed their catering business and started producing artisan native food products under the Outback Spirit label. Products include chilli sauces, chutneys, infused salts, barbecue rubs, marinades, herbs and spices in single packs and gift packs.
“When we first started trying to develop this ethical supply chain back in 2002, I tried to be all things to all people, and to set things up all around the country. It just became impossible to manage,” Juleigh Robins says.
“Now we really focus our work with Indigenous groups on arid species – things like Kakadu
plums, wattle seed, bush tomato and wild limes – that grow in harsher, remote regions.”
The pair also have a “really keen interest” in making sure the rest of their supply chain is Australian, saying they buy as much Australian-made or grown ingredients as possible.
As a result the lowest level of Australian content in their products is 96 per cent. Tiny portions of the total product
– garlic powder or pectin for example – are from overseas. “Our onions come from
northern Victoria, our vinegar and our sugar, and so on, are all Australian,” Robins says.
The comment that Indigenous ingredients are
Indigenous opportunity: Outback Spirit aims to build a future for its suppliers.
gaining mainstream interest makes Robins smile.
“I remember when we started, someone at Coles said ‘it’ll take you twenty years’. That was seventeen years ago, so it does take a long time. I think food trends are moving a lot faster
now because of the internet. It’s exciting times now.”
For Robins, what is most important is to build a business to a point where it “delivers a nice future for everybody”, which includes the company’s Indigenous suppliers. ✷
Innovative sports drink makes a splash
The first significant advance in hydration since sports drinks were invented 50 years ago has made a strong market debut.
PREPD was launched by Preserve Health with two ready-to-drink products: Prime and Recover,
each available in mango and passionfruit, plus strawberry and kiwi flavours.
The two-step hydration system, which is the first significant advance in
sports drinks since their invention, was introduced in November last year.
The product is the result of two decades of medical research at both South Australia’s Flinders University and American Ivy League research
Holding water: The PREPD two-step hydration system.
university, Yale, and four years of solid product development and market testing in Australia.
David Vincent is a co- founder of Preserve Health, along with researcher Professor Graeme Young. Professor Young developed PREPD in collaboration with three other inventors. After securing $142,000 of SA government innovation funding, they spun out Preserve Health as a company in July 2017.
PREPD’s initial target market is elite, semi-pro, serious endurance sport and recreational consumers.
“It’s what we consider the ‘pointy end of the adoption curve’. They’re athletes driven by performance, who probably train for at least 10 hours a week.”
The broader opportunity, as Preserve Health builds awareness of PREPD, is much larger.
“It’s really anyone who is competing in team or
individual sport that lasts for at least an hour, and who is typically losing enough fluid that their performance will deteriorate, and therefore they will benefit from reducing dehydration with PREPD.”
Excitingly, Preserve Health is in the early stages of exploring several other markets where dehydration is also a big problem, including defence, mining and emergency services.
Preserve Health is also doing online sales into New Zealand, with the future potential for distribution partners there.
“We definitely have a pretty ambitious view of PREPD’s global potential. The US and Europe are at the front of our radar; collectively they’re around two-thirds of the global sports and nutrition market. So we want to get our business model on point, then take that as a recipe to adapt and scale-up overseas.” ✷
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | November-December 2019 | Food&Drink business | 25
RISING STAR
✷