Page 26 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

✷ RISING STAR
BROUGHT TO YOU BY
Chief of health
Created by a quartet of wellbeing buffs, Chief Nutrition is aiming for global domination with its range of healthy bars designed for on-the-go snackers looking for ‘real food’.
Collagen boost: Chief’s four-SKU range is ideal for athletes but good for everyone.
LIBBY and Justin Babet’s lives revolve around wellbeing. The couple own and run two fitness studios, while health journalist Libby was also a trainer for Channel TEN’s The Biggest Loser.
Five years ago they joined forces with nutritionist and exercise physiologist Veronika Larisova, and Brock Hatton, founder of health-food distribution company This Natural Life. The team began experimenting with a snack bar that fitted their ideal as “unashamed health freaks” – a product where “even the small print meant it was good for you”.
Justin Babet says, “It started as a side project. We were very focused on getting our products
right for the first three years. Then, two years ago, we felt we were ready to scale, so I sold my tech business and went full-time, along with Brock.”
That first product was Chief Bar, a savoury meat bar in two flavours, Beef & Chilli and Lamb & Rosemary. Along with grass-fed meat, the bars contain some herbs, nuts and “a tiny bit of dried fruit”.
Babet says, “We’re targeting those who want to eat high quality, real-food snacks when they’re on the move.”
On the back of the meat bars’ success, the fledgling company launched a four SKU range of Chief Collagen bars: Cashew Shortbread, Hazelnut Brownie, Peanut Butter and Lemon Tart.
“Our collagen bars are great for anyone, but collagen has been shown to improve tendons, joints and muscle recovery, so they’re particularly great for runners and athletes,” Libby Babet says.
Chief Nutrition’s sales are a mix of online and retail, with products available nationwide in around 400 stores. Online sales account for anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent of revenue, depending on the month. Chief has signed on with a New Zealand distributor since September.
For now, the Chief team are focused on building a strong, sustainable business in Australia and some key international markets. ✷
Milking the caravan
The Camel Milk Co. began when Megan and Chris Williams bought three feral camels. Today it exports products around the world.
IT was working on a remote outback station near Alice Springs in 2008 where Megan and Chris Williams not only met and fell in love with each other, but with the wild camels roaming on the 10,850 square kilometre cattle property as well.
Starting a camel milk dairy seemed like a great idea to Megan, who had grown up on a dairy farm in northern Victoria
So in 2014, the couple started Camel Milk Victoria – the state’s first licensed camel dairy – with three dromedary (single-hump) camels on 43.3 hectares near her childhood home.
Today the business farms 350 camels over 195 hectares. It was
renamed The Camel Milk Co. Australia in 2017.
The camels are milked through an automatic five-aside double-up walk-through dairy.
Megan Williams says, “While we’re probably milking sixty to seventy at any one time, depending on the number who’ve calved, we built capacity to milk up to two hundred. We’ll hopefully achieve that goal in the next 12 months.
“We’ve got some really exciting things coming on board, and some deals coming up that we think will definitely increase demand,” she says.
The Camel Milk Co. aims to produce all its own feed but during the drought, like other
Wild idea: Camel farming has led to a thriving ‘dairy’ start-up.
farms, it has had to buy in feed. While milk can be purchased
from other farms, currently all milk is sourced from their own. For the Williams family, this preserves the quality and taste of their “milk terroir”.
Williams says: “Each farm has their own individual taste
as a result of animal genetics, diet and a range of other factors. From feedback, ours is significantly different to others.
“It’s just like some boutique dairy-cow farms, where
their milk tastes completely different to that of the corporate processors.” ✷
26 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au