Dreamfarm’s Fluicer and Axiom Holographics land on Time’s best inventions of 2023 list

A quirky kitchen utensil and one of the country’s most advanced hologram developers have both landed on Time magazine’s prestigious best inventions of the year list.

Two Australian companies have made the cut for Time magazine’s list of the best inventions for 2023, alongside such eye-catching innovations as the Los Vegas Sphere.

For Alex Gransbury, the founder of Dreamfarm, his life’s work is all about improving even the simplest of items - from pepper grinders to spice jars, spoons and potato peelers.

One of his latest products is the Fluicer, a compact, easy squeeze juicing tool that folds flat to fit in the kitchen drawer.

It has quickly become one of the 20-year-old company’s top sellers and scored a spot in Time magazine’s list of the year’s 200 best inventions.

Bruce Dell’s Axiom Holographics, the company behind the world’s first hologram zoo, has also scored a spot on the list.

Axiom, which is also behind Bill Gates’ hologram aquarium in the Maldives and a hologram table for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has doubled its revenue in 2022-23 to $125m and expects to triple it in the next 12 months.

Axiom is based at Murarrie with a production centre in Yatala between the Gold Coast and Brisbane, where it designs and manufactures microchips and hardware.

Mr Dell said of the Time magazine list: The question is, is there anywhere higher to go”.

“The last winners in that category all ended up being approached by big investors, all offering lots of money to expand and right now we’re in a situation where we’ve actually run out of stock, we’re selling so much,” he said.

“What I’d like to see that how Finland with Nokia is the head of mobile phones, it will be the same for Australia with holograms.”

Dreamfarm’s Fluicer has been named one of the top 200 Best Inventions of 2023 by Time magazine. Picture: Dreamfarm

Backed by investors like Leica, the Omani royal family and ­associates of the Japanese investment holding company SoftBank, the company has commercial, ­defence and education divisions and also manufactures entertainment and hologram arcade equipment.

Mr Gransbury started Dreamfarm from a backyard shed and launched his first product — a coffee grind knockbox called Grindenstein — in 2003.

The products are now sold in 35 countries and in 300 independent stores globally. The team have recently launched their products in David Jones.

Dreamfarm, which has 30 employees, is expected to finish the year with a turnover of more than $22m, almost double what it notched up three years ago.

Mr Gransbury said of all the awards Dreamfarm and the Fluicer have received, including a recommendation by Oprah Winfrey, the Time nomination has resonated the most with customers.

“We are absolutely singing from the rooftops … it’s a fantastic bit of recognition, we didn’t even apply for the nomination,” Mr Gransbury said.

Axiom Holographics CEO Bruce Dell inside his Hologram Zoo at Cannon Hill. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The Fluicer, which retails for $24.95, was released in January this year and quickly rose to the company’s number one selling product in Australia and the US in July.

“The Fluicer is also one of the top five selling products internationally, behind some of our hit products like the Supoon,” Mr Gransbury said.

“We have definitely sold around a few hundred thousand of the Fluicers across the world.”

Other inventions that made the Time list includes the Utah Bionic Leg, the Las Vegas Sphere entertainment venue, OpenAi GPT-4 and Apple Watch Ultra 2.

The full list of Times magazine’s 200 Best Inventions of 2023.

Originally published as Dreamfarm’s Fluicer and Axiom Holographics land on Time’s best inventions of 2023 list