Tag: Sarah Sharples

Melbourne men land $1m deal with Coles and Woolworths for their Buddee allergy-free spreads

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 14, 2022
No Comments on Melbourne men land $1m deal with Coles and Woolworths for their Buddee allergy-free spreads

Two Melbourne dads landed a deal with both Woolworths and Coles worth $1 million before they had even sold one of their products.

Dad-of-two Seong-Lee Ang, set out to solve a problem with his business partner, after an experience “threw” his family’s “world upside down”.

The 45-year-old’s children both have severe anaphylactic food allergies.

Both are allergic to nuts but his four-year-old in particular is impacted by a range of foods.

“My daughter is allergic to dairy, egg, whole nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish and citrus seeds and that’s just the list we have tested so far,” he told news.com.au.

“It’s been pretty awful and it’s been a real challenge having such severe allergies. Eating out is really difficult, we take our own food for our daughter as no restaurant can cater to her allergies from her.

“We have had multiple close calls, hospital visits and ambulances called and as she was heading towards school age it was most frightening thinking about her being at school with hundreds of other children eating lunch around her.”

So in the middle of Melbourne’s long string of lockdowns when visiting the supermarket was a treat, Mr Ang realized apart from Vegemite and jam, every product in the spread aisle of the major supermarkets contained nuts.

“I guess we were thinking what is an easy thing to pack into school lunch boxes and it’s a sandwich but the spreads are really limited. There are hundreds of spreads in the spreads aisles and most contain nuts,” he explained.

“There are ‘no nut’ policies across the country where children can’t take peanut butter or Nutella sandwiches to school. It became our mission to solve this big problem, so it’s not just for allergy kids but all the children who would love to take a peanut butter sandwich to school and can’t.”

This is where their business called Buddee was born, with an aim to create an “inclusive” spread for all children and adults.

But Mr Ang and his co-founder Rodney Chieng knew they were in for a challenge as allergy-free products are “notorious” for tasting terrible, gambling around $400,000 from their own savings to make it happen.

Both also wanted their product to end up in the mainstream aisle, rather than being relegated to the health food aisle.

Dad-of-three Mr Chieng drove the product development, which took 60 versions of their first chocolate spread to get it right, with the early types tasting “awful”, Mr Ang admitted.

“Most of the first ones were disasters, in truth because of my children’s allergies I really wanted to make something that my daughter could eat and she’s not just allergic to nuts … so it was very limiting in terms of the ingredients we could use as we really wanted it to be allergen friendly,” he added.

His daughter was one of the chief taste testers and by version 30 she really started to like them rather than scrunching up her face, he said, and now absolutely loves it.

“Pretty much every day my children want a Buddee sandwich or the spread on toast or to dip carrots in. They eat it daily so they are going to put me out of business,” he joked.

Chickpea is the main ingredient, which presents problems initially on the taste front as well as with its water content.

“We got around it and roasted the chickpeas and that gives the nutlike flavor of the nutty spreads,” he said.

“It still tastes very familiar to people who still like nut spreads and people who do blind taste tests cannot believe it doesn’t contain nuts.”

The business partners were “shocked and over the moon” when both Woolworths and Coles wanted to stock their spreads before they had “sold a single jar yet”, Mr Ang said.

The deals will see Buddee Chocolate and Smooth spreads available at Woolworths supermarkets nationwide from August 15.

Meanwhile, Buddee Chocolate and Crunchy spreads will be available at Coles supermarkets nationwide from September 2022 and will retail for $6.50.

“It’s a testament to the need for this product and there is nothing like Buddee on their shelves,” Mr Ang said.

“There are so many spreads on the shelves but all contain nuts, so there is a big gap in the market we are filling and the supermarkets needed it even though we haven’t sold a jar yet.

“We are trying to find a solution for Australian families and children at school. We want school playgrounds to be inclusive and no one to miss out but instead they can take Buddee and don’t harm the kids next to them.”

But he said adults can also enjoy the spreads too.

Compared to other conventional spreads, Buddee contains less sugar, less saturated fat

and is free from palm oil as well as being entirely free from the top 10 allergens

including nuts, wheat, soy, dairy and sesame, according to Mr Ang.

Having been in “scary” situations where EpiPens have had to be used on his child in a restaurant, Mr Ang said Buddee is “so personal” to him.

”It’s been pretty tough the last six years with both our children having allergies,” he added.

“I have been in business before but this is why this business means the world to me. It’s actually creating change in the community, that’s why it’s so meaningful to me.”

Mr Ang said the duo have huge plans for the brand with future allergy-free products beyond the spread aisle.

Read related topics:MelbourneWoolworths

Business

Aussie company collapses up to 50 per cent since April, Creditorwatch finds

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 12, 2022
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It’s no secret there has been a “massive rise” in Australian companies collapsing but new findings show they have skyrocketed by a whopping 50 per cent since April.

The construction industry has faced a particular crisis with dozens of firms going under this year, but everything from billion dollar tech starts up to grocery delivery companies have become casualties of this “disturbing trend”.

Overall, companies going into external administration are up 46 per cent year-on-year, while court actions are up 54 per cent year-on-year, the latest data from credit reporting agency CreditorWatch found.

The huge jump has been blamed on interest rate rises causing “cheap money” to dry up, while spooked investors are pulling back on spending their cash on start-ups as valuations have taken a dramatic dive, with a slew of staff cuts battering the sector .

Meanwhile many businesses are already suffering depleted cash reserves as a result of the pandemic and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has ramped up its debt collection, according to the agency.

‘Ramping up legal action’

CreditorWatch has issued a chilling warning that the rise in business insolvencies will continue this year as multiple impacts batter the economy including ongoing supply chain issues, declining consumer confidence, rising interest rates, inflation and labor shortages.

CreditorWatch chief executive Patrick Coghlan said the hands-off approach to debt collection adopted by the ATO and many lenders during the pandemic is clearly over.

“The massive rise in external administrations is certainly a disturbing trend – now up 50 per cent since April. Our data shows that court actions are back to pre-Covid levels and the ATO has also stated that it is ramping up legal action for outstanding debts,” he said.

“With business and consumer confidence declining and inflation and interest rates on the rise, this doesn’t bode well for businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises whose cash reserves were depleted during the pandemic and are now operating on much tighter margins.”

No longer ‘awash with cash’

Aussie start-ups have been particularly hard hit, with the casualties piling up in the tech sector.

The latest was an Australian tech company called Metigy, which left staff “shell-shocked” by its sudden collapse last week, after it planned to raise money with a valuation of $1 billion.

Businesses that are trying to raise money for growth are particularly at risk in the current environment, added CreditorWatch chief economist Anneke Thompson.

“When interest rates were low and the world was awash with cash, investors were hungry for investment opportunities, and willing to move up the risk curve to find good returns,” she said.

“Now that cash is being consumed by ever-increasing prices and debt costs a lot more, the appetite for risk is dropping.

“Start-up businesses or those in the growth phase are always considered riskier. We have already seen this phenomenon hit the tech sector, and many well-known companies are being repriced to reflect this.”

Other recently failed Australian start-ups include grocery delivery service Send, which went into liquidation at the end of May, after the company spent $11 million in eight months to stay afloat.

There was also a Victorian food delivery company that styled itself as a rival to UberEats and Deliveroo that collapsed in July as it became unprofitable, despite making more than $6 million worth of deliveries since it launched in 2017 and had 18,000 customers.

Meanwhile Australia’s first ever neobank founded in 2017, Volt Bank, went under last month with 140 staff losing their jobs, while 6000 customers were told to urgently withdraw their funds.

A venture capital firm issued a sobering message about the state of Australia’s start-up industry, warning that more new companies would go bust and pulling back on funding as a result.

CreditorWatch also identified five regions where businesses are most at risk of going under with the suburbs of Merrylands, Canterbury and Auburn in NSW on the list, alongside Surfers Paradise and Ormeau in Queensland.

Construction collapses to continue

After four consecutive months of increases to interest rates and inflation continuing to rise, it is now clear that a slowdown in demand in many industries is inevitable, added Ms Thompson.

She said construction companies will continue to be impacted by late payments and reduced demand, particularly smaller operators.

The most recent company impacted was Melbourne-based Blint Builder which collapsed this week with approximately $1 million in outstanding debt owed to 50 creditors, according to the liquidators.

It joined smaller operators like Hotondo Homes Horsham, which was based in Victoria and a franchisee of a national construction firm – which collapsed in July affecting 11 homeowners with $1.2 million in outstanding debt.

It was the second Hotondo Homes franchisee to go under this year, with its Hobart branch collapsing in January owing $1.3 million to creditors, according to a report from liquidator Revive Financial.

Others include two major Australian construction companies, Gold Coast-based Condev and industry giant Probuild, which went into liquidation earlier this year.

There was also Norris Construction Group, which was in Geelong, collapsed in March with $27 million in debt. It owes $3.2 million to around 140 staff that it is unlikely to be able to repay, according to the liquidator’s report.

Meanwhile, Snowdon Developments was ordered into liquidation by the Supreme Court with 52 staff members, 550 homes and more than 250 creditors owed just under $18 million, although it was partially bought out less than 24 hours after going bust.

Other casualties this year include Inside Out Construction, Solido Builders, Waterford Homes, Affordable Modular Homes and Statement Builders.

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Business

Melbourne construction company Blint Builders collapses owing $1m to 50 creditors

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 11, 2022
No Comments on Melbourne construction company Blint Builders collapses owing $1m to 50 creditors

A Melbourne-based builder has collapsed with approximately $1 million in outstanding debt owed to 50 creditors, according to the liquidators.

The construction firm called Blint Builders went into voluntary liquidation after news.com.au revealed a number of homeowners were experiencing a “horrendous” amount of stress as they had poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into half finished homes that had sat untouched for months.

Cliff Sanderson from insolvency firm Dissolve has been appointed to handle Blint Builder’s liquidation.

He said Blint’s owner had told him that the company had “ceased to trade”.

“In our conversations with him, which are yet to be verified, he told us there are 50 creditors with approximately $1 million in debt and I expect that number to go up and the money will go up in excess of that,” he told news. com.au.

‘Horrifying strain’

Mr Sanderson said he was also told that “half a dozen” homeowners were impacted by Blint’s demise, but was waiting on more information to be supplied by the builder.

One family impacted are Dean and Nolle Fuller, who have five children between them, and have already shelled out $480,000 to Blint, since signing on in January.

The couple had demolished their existing home last November and had engaged Blint Builders to build two townhouses for $1.5 million, due to be delivered early next year.

No work has been done on the site since June and it has been broken into after construction stopped leaving it a “mess”, Mr Fuller said.

“In that time, we have had two lots of vandalizing and trespassing and damage caused to our property, which has been lodged with police,” Mr Fuller told news.com.au.

“We have had a truck back up and dump three to four square meters of rubble and waste material on the property and the truck also smashed the gates down.

“Recently someone turned up and stole the electrical meter box within the property.”

The project manager said the experience had caused an “unbelievable amount of stress and anxiety”.

Another family who are under “horrendous strain” are Tony and Jo Firman and their two children, who are building a home specially designed for her as she has multiple sclerosis.

The couple said they have paid $1.14 million so far to the builder and the house is at lock up stage but no work has happened since early June, according to Mr Firman.

“Even with the full insurance payout it might not be enough money. We skimped and saved and borrowed quite a substantial amount of money. We are worried we won’t make enough money to repay the loan and be able to live,” Mr Firman told news.com.au earlier this week.

Landlord owed $14k

Blint Builder’s office in the Melbourne suburb of Highett was also seized by the landlord.

Legal documents posted on the front door show the landlord has executed their right to re-entry, terminating the lease and demanding all property be removed and the keys be returned.

The legal notice also revealed that Blint Builders owe the landlord close to $14,000 in unpaid rent and rates.

Mr Sanderson said statistically it was rare for a dividend to be paid to unsecured creditors from a home builder as they “rarely have any assets”.

“Recently released ASIC corporate insolvency statistics reveal that the construction sector accounted for 28 per cent of all insolvencies for the June 2022 quarter,” he said.

“Construction is the largest sector in the statistics, second is accommodation and food with 16 per cent of the total, while 28 per cent is the highest ever percentage of total insolvencies for construction, equal with the December 2021 quarter.

“On average going back to 2013, construction makes up 19 per cent of total insolvencies.”

construction crisis

Overall, the construction industry has been plagued with a spate of collapses caused by a perfect storm of supply chain disruptions, skilled labor shortages, skyrocketing costs of materials and logistics, and extreme weather events.

Earlier this year, two major Australian construction companies, Gold Coast-based Condev and industry giant Probuild, went into liquidation.

Victorian construction companies have been particularly hard hit by the crisis.

Two building companies from Victoria were casualties of the crisis having gone into liquidation at the end of June, with one homeowner having forked out $300,000 for a now half-built house.

Then there have been smaller operators like Hotondo Homes Horsham, which was also based in Victoria and a franchisee of a national construction firm – which collapsed earlier this month affecting 11 homeowners with $1.2 million in outstanding debt.

It is the second Hotondo Homes franchisee to go under this year, with its Hobart branch collapsing in January owing $1.3 million to creditors, according to a report from liquidator Revive Financial.

Norris Construction Group, which was in Geelong, collapsed in March with $27 million in debt. It owes $3.2 million to around 140 staff that it is unlikely to be able to repay, according to the liquidator’s report.

Snowdon Developments was ordered into liquidation by the Supreme Court with 52 staff members, 550 homes and more than 250 creditors owed just under $18 million, although it was partially bought out less than 24 hours after going bust.

Others joined the list too including Inside Out Construction, Solido Builders, Waterford Homes, Affordable Modular Homes and Statement Builders.

The most recent collapse was NSW building company Willoughby Homes, which went into voluntary administration last week, leaving at least 30 homes in limbo.

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Business

Australian IT company Megaport sacks 10 per cent of staff, pays them $1.6m

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 10, 2022
No Comments on Australian IT company Megaport sacks 10 per cent of staff, pays them $1.6m

An Australian tech company sacked around 10 per cent of its staff despite announcing its revenue had jumped by 40 per cent to $109.7 million in the past financial year.

The Brisbane-based telecommunications and IT infrastructure company called Megaport revealed that a whopping $1.6 million was spent paying out employees who had been made redundant.

Around 35 staff members – out of its 345 estimated workforce on LinkedIn – were impacted by the cuts.

“On July 14 2022, management made the decision to reduce its workforce in order to reduce costs and prepare for rising prices and inflation across the group’s key markets,” Megaport revealed in its report to investors.

Its revenue had grown from $78.3 million from the previous financial year, its results showed, while its monthly recurring revenue soared by 43 per cent to $10.7 million in June, mainly as a result of new customers from the US.

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The 10-year-old company, which was founded by multi-millionaire Bevan Slattery, is one of the many Aussie tech outfits that have suffered from a battering on the share market this year.

Its shares have plummeted by 53 per cent since the start of the year, but its results reported on Tuesday helped its stock rise by 9 per cent defying the broader trend of investors selling off loss making tech shares.

Megaport reported a full year net loss of $48.5 million down from $55 million the year earlier, while it increased customers from 2,285 to 2,643.

It currently has $82.5 million in cash, according to its report.

tech bloodbath

Aussie employees from the tech sector have suffered a brutal round of cuts in recent times, with Megaport’s staff the latest casualties.

An Australian social media start-up called Linktree that was recently valued at $1.78 billion is sacking 17 per cent of staff from its global operations, it revealed this week.

Immutable, an Australian crypto company valued at $3.5 billion was facing a fierce backlash last week after sacking 17 per cent of its staff from its gaming division, while continuing to “hire aggressively” after raising $280 million in funding in March.

Australian healthcare start-up Eucalptys that provides treatments for obesity, acne and erectile dysfunction fired up to 20 per cent of staff after an investment firm pulled its funding at the last minute.

Debt collection start-up Indebted sacked 40 of its employees just before the end of the financial year, despite its valuation soaring to more than $200 million, with most of the redundancies made across sales and marketing.

Then there was Australian buy now, pay later provider Brighte, that offers money for home improvements and solar power, which let go of 15 per cent of its staff in June, with roles primarily based on corporate and new product development.

Another buy now, pay later provider with offices in Sydney called BizPay made 30 per cent of its redundant workforce blaming market conditions for the huge cut to staffing in May.

Earlier this year, a start-up focused on the solar sector called 5B Solar, which boasts backing from former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, also sacked 25 per cent of its staff after completing a capital raise that would inject $30 million into the business

Business

How David Jones is targeting 582m Chinese customers via WeChat

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 10, 2022
No Comments on How David Jones is targeting 582m Chinese customers via WeChat

Upmarket legacy retailer David Jones is arguably better known for its old-fashioned shops and traditional customer service than its online innovation.

But the department store appears to be one of the only Australian retailers tapping into the gigantic Chinese market on a social media platform that boasts 582 million active users a month.

The retailer’s chief marketing officer James Holloman has described the platform Weibo or WeChat as “world leading” combining the elements from other social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as the ability to pay bills and buy everything from fashion to beauty products .

With more than 40,000 followers and three years on WeChat, Mr Holloman said David Jones’ Chinese clients were “incredibly important” to the retailer, which has signaled unrivaled “commercial success” on the social media platform.

“WeChat is a full ecosystem for mainland China … and it’s almost a one-stop shop for mainland Chinese where they are doing kinda like Facebook, Instagram and a payment wallet all in one,” he told news.com.au.

“You technically follow different accounts and different individuals, and you use it essentially as a WhatsApp version between your friends in terms of messaging, but then you also follow different brands and it’s similar to a really immersive email.

“It’s basically a full immersive ability to shop directly from incredibly immersive posts … and you can follow everyone from Louis Vuitton, Coca Cola, Estee Lauder to Dior.”

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For David Jones, many of his followers are part of the Chinese community living in Australia and the bulk are aged between 25 and 36, Mr Holloman revealed, which has given the retailer “massive growth” from younger shoppers.

One of the department store’s big moves has been around Singles Day, an unofficial holiday and shopping event held on 11 November every year in China, that celebrates people who are not in relationships.

“Last year during the Singles Day shopping event, which is almost the biggest shopping day worldwide and it’s bigger than Black Friday, we did our first live stream,” Mr Holloman said.

“It’s the equivalent of shopping television where we had an hour and a half of fully engaged viewers watching our life stream of all of amazing products and key specials happening over that day and we had 13,000 viewers watching that on WeChat.”

For the Lunar Year in February, they introduced the little red packets which are a traditional gift of money, and allowed people to send them virtually to friends from their account.

Influencers have also been key to the brand’s success, I added.

Mr Holloman said mainland Chinese are important clients for buying premium goods, with a report from consulting firm McKinsey revealing that 50 per cent of the global luxury goods will be purchased by the Chinese by 2025.

“It’s a very hot market for the stuff that we sell,” he added.

“Secondly, there is an audience in Australia that want to be communicated to. There are 1.2 million Chinese born Australians so that’s a huge proportion as it’s almost 5 per cent of the Australian population.

“We want to talk to our clients in the language and way they best feel most comfortable in… and understanding and engaging in and on a platform that they feel most comfortable in.”

This approach has also been translated into stores as well with sales associates who speak fluent Mandarin, he added.

WeChat recently praised David Jones’ SS20 Beauty campaign as a part of a global showcase of best-in-class activity and it was the only international retail store featured on the list.

The beauty campaign, themed Full Bloom, included video, imagery, emails, in-store visual merchandising, a 36-page print booklet and shoppable article pages.

“With clever use of shoppable product display functions and rich graphic design elements, the campaign achieved a click through rate of more than double that of industry benchmarks,” WeChat said.

Another “incredible success story” for the China market has been landing Kim Kardashian’s popular Skims line, Mr Holloman said.

“She can be polarizing, but it’s been a commercial success and from what we hear from customers, they are excited to have such exclusive brands across our network,” he said.

The retailer copped fierce backlash when it announced it was stocking the star’s products, with loyal fans of the store accusing the world-famous influencer of diminishing the retailer’s “class” after DJ’s shared a video to their Instagram page of Kim promoting the brand.

However, despite its investment in WeChat, David Jones has no presence on another social media platform that has been blowing up – TikTok – which has over one billion users.

“We are incredibly strong on Instagram and on Facebook, we have in excess of 400,000 followers on Instagram and 600,000 on Facebook,” Mr Holloman said.

Queensland University of Technology retail expert Dr Gary Mortimer said David Jones’ use of WeChat is a “great strategy”.

“They are taking advantage of a growing middle class affluent Chinese market that does often look for Australian brands and often international brands and David Jones has the ability to provide those brands to that particular audience,” Dr Mortimer told news.com.au.

“When you look at what they are doing in that space they would be aligning themselves with Chinese influencers that connect really well with that Chinese market.

“They would be leveraging really large online promotional events like Singles Day that runs on the 11 November every year and it gets bigger and bigger.

“Singles Day is a bit like Amazon Price day but it turned over about $US85 billion ($A122 billion) last year. The Chinese market is a very valuable and viable market for Australian business and brands.”

Dr Mortimer said China’s population of 1.3 billion compared to the “tiny” 26 million living in Australia also showed it was a lucrative field to play in.

“Trust is huge issue for the Chinese population who are concerned about counterfeiting, so working on a Chinese platform gives legitimacy for David Jones in that market,” he added.

“Woolworths is playing in that space as well.”

In 2015, Woolworths opened its first overseas flagship store on the Tmall website and has also partnered with supermarket 7 Fresh since 2020 offering WeChat as a payment system.

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Business

EnergyAustralia suffers a $1.6b loss due to ‘extreme’ market conditions

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 9, 2022
No Comments on EnergyAustralia suffers a $1.6b loss due to ‘extreme’ market conditions

The electricity crisis caused EnergyAustralia to suffer a whopping $1.6 billion loss for the first half of the year as the company battled with “extreme” conditions in the market.

The Melbourne-based company, owned by Hong Kong’s CLP Group, also warned that household power bills would continue to face pressure due to ongoing volatility in global fuel prices.

The mega loss experienced by the third biggest energy retailer was in stark contrast to last year when it recorded a $146 million profit.

The chief executive of parent company CLP Group, Richard Lancaster, said it would be “proactive” in seeking out partnerships for EnergyAustralia to transition to low-carbon energy.

Six weeks before the loss was reported, the company had issued a profit warning to the market.

On Monday, it revealed its earning had taken a huge hit as it was forced to buy up expensive supplies to meet customer demand amid “unprecedented market volatility”.

Shortfalls in energy production from its Yallourn and Mount Piper coal plants was one of the main reasons it had to shell out more money for supplies.

Its Yallourn plant in particular was hit by delays due to a fire on a coal conveyancer system and recurring maintenance issues, according to CLP Group.

However, the outlook on pricing continued to be bad, according to the company.

“Volatility in spot prices in response to weather variations and changes in supply and demand looks set to continue amid the net-zero transition in Australia,” CLP Group said.

However, EnergyAustralia’s competitors, AGL Energy and Origin Energy, have also sounded the alarm about profits due to issues such as coal power outages and supply problems at some plants.

Mr Lancaster said while the last six months were not representative of the market in general, volatility was something to expect in Australia.

Last month, the credit agency Standard & Poor (S&P) warned EnergyAustralia could be at risk of breaching one of its loans and suggested it may need financial assistance from its parent company.

EnergyAustralia signed a $1 billion credit facility in July to provide a bigger financial buffer for its operations, with S&P giving it a negative outlook due to its weakening credit position.

In its half yearly report, EnergyAustralia said it would “continue to strengthen its capital structure to fund its current and future investment needs, providing the reliable supply needed to support customer demand and the transition to a lower-carbon power market”.

But other retailers going under – with a spate collapsing including Byron Bay community-owned electricity provider Enova, Victorian provider Electricityinabox, LPE, Discover, Elysian and Future X – was a win for EnergyAustralia, which saw its customer base leap to 2.45 million.

EnergyAustralia said it had plans in place for the rest of the year to ensure electricity supply.

“Additional short-term coal and gas purchases have been made to enable EnergyAustralia’s power stations to support customers and the broader energy market in the second half,” CLP said.

Business

EnergyAustralia suffers a $1.6b loss due to ‘extreme’ market conditions

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 9, 2022
No Comments on EnergyAustralia suffers a $1.6b loss due to ‘extreme’ market conditions