Page 45 - Food&Drink Business magazine June 2022

AUSPACK 2022
FAR LEFT: An electric atmosphere at AUSPACK 2022.
TOP LEFT: The tireless Yaffa team, L-R: Marni Groves, Sharon Amos, Wayne Robinson, Lindy Hughson, Kim Berry, and Colleen Bate
BOTTOM LEFT: Tales of resilience and determination at the Leaders’ Forum session moderated by Kate Whitehead (far left), with Dean Carroll from Brown Family Wine Group, Berger Ingredients founder and CEO Diem Fuggersberger, and Ego Pharmaceuticals’ Alan Oppenheim.
BELOW: Sometimes success comes from looking at a trend then turning in the opposite direction, said WWP ANZ president Rose Herceg in her opening keynote.
gets released to the market,” she said.
Considering the ALP did win office, let’s watch this space.
RESILIENCE AND RISK
Following her keynote, Whitehead chaired a panel of industry leaders discussing risk, resilience, and rebalancing after Covid.
She was joined by Berger Ingredients founder and CEO Diem Fuggersberger, Brown Family Wine Group CEO Dean Carroll, and Ego Pharmaceuticals CEO Alan Oppenheim.
The panel shared their insights on developing organisational flexibility and agility and why it is the key to responding to changing market conditions.
Fuggersberger shared an example of her company’s resilience during Covid when, in the lead-up to launching a
new plant-based spring roll product, a key piece of specialised machinery failed to arrive from Hong Kong due to shipping delays. With an order for 20-30 tonnes of product already scheduled, her team rolled the spring rolls – around 300,000 – by hand.
Whitehead asked the panel how the year was shaping up for them, and whether there was a feeling of returning to normal.
Carroll said that for Browns it was anything but, with the main challenges being around people and supply chain. Export was running around eight to 12 weeks behind schedule, and staffing shortages were ongoing.
Oppenheim echoed Carroll’s comments, saying Ego was averaging around 10 per cent of staff off sick or isolating at any given time and the ongoing difficulties regarding containers and meeting export orders.
“Getting containers into lots of countries is really difficult. If you can get them, you have to forget about the cost, the fact is it has gone up fivefold just in the last month.
“It’s a little like the arcade game of whack-a-mole. You resolve one issue to only have another one rear its head,” Oppenheim said.
In looking ahead, Carroll said Brown Family’s growth strategy had two key focuses: increasing exports from 15 per cent to closer to 30 per cent of the business while also exploring ecommerce opportunities.
Oppenheim said the recent launch of its Etch&Ethos brand has been a major focus and was “going gangbusters”, with the containers made from 50 per cent recycled milk bottles.
“We would like to spin off some of that technology into our other products,” he said.
Fuggersberger’s Coco & Lucas brand is about to launch a range of healthy ready meals for the teen market as well as focusing on building export markets.
“Building our cultural intelligence on what products sell best in different markets is a critical goal for us.
“We’re focusing on Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, and starting to develop the UK market. We’re also looking at doing some private label manufacturing in Hong Kong,” she said.
Whitehead said the changed business landscape presented less certainty and greater demands for increased flexibility.
The exhibitors and speakers at AUSPACK all displayed the four Rs, creating four energising days for the industry.
The expo will be back in 2024, but reformulated and rebranded as APPEX. ✷
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | June 2022 | Food&Drink business | 45