Buy Australian: Bickford’s enjoy year of sweet success

Their commitment to staff, community and providing a diverse product range, has landed Salisbury-based Bickford’s a sweet future.

Bickford’s marketing manager Chris Illman with their new range of plant based milk. Picture: Tom Huntley.

Being deemed an essential service certainly helped during COVID-19, however Bickford’s group sales and marketing manager Chris Illman admits it didn’t stop them from diversifying their focus.

First established in 1839 as an apothecary before transitioning to cordials and soft drinks in 1874, the family-owned business has been no stranger to change. However, Mr Illman said the pandemic pushed them to focus on more essential products, which have since become a permanent product line.

“We moved into hand sanitiser production, that was a really good opportunity for us to support community, support staff internally and supply customers,” he said.

“We’ve actually commercialised a long-term, locally produced and manufactured hand sanitiser that is rolling out now with Uniting Chemists, On The Run and local supermarkets,”

Bickford’s group sales and marketing manager Chris Illman stands in front of the Salisbury plant. Picture: Tom Huntley.

This ability to adapt during the pandemic proved crucial not only for Bickford’s success, but also for their ability to retain their 400-plus employees nationally and support the community.

“We donated around$250,000 of retail value hand sanitiser to community sports, from soccer through to netball, to enable those community groups to continue running,” Mr Illman said.

“We also have four hospitality venues, so we redeployed staff and were supportive of everyone working from home, apart from production staff of course.”

While Bickford’s has always been a household name, Mr Illman said the business’ success comes down to its ability to keep up with consumer trends.

Recently launching a range of plant-based milks to meet demand for dairy alternatives, the business has also been looking towards developing an e-commerce platform and collaborating with other iconic South Australian brands.

“The consumer is asking for new, innovative, but trusted brands that are locally made. A lot of (dairy alternative) products in supermarkets come from offshore, there’s a lot of trust in Bickford’s, so we take that seriously,” Mr Illman said.

“We‘re also moving into a new market via e-commerce on a global scale, moving into more health and wellness categories, and collaborating with Robern Menznext year.”

While this year has been positive for the iconic business, Mr Illman said it was still as important as ever to support local.

“We’re a South Australian business that employs South Australians, our products are locally sourced and come from local dairy farmers and producers,” he said.

“We’re supporting everyone through the supply chain, we’re a values based organisation that prides itself on collaboration.”

Buy Australian is a News Corp Initiative – in partnership with Woolworths and Australian Made Campaign and supported by Red Energy – to help put money back in to our economy by supporting our producers, makers and manufacturers.