US exports driving Bundaberg Brewed Drinks expansion

Forget Pepsi and Coca Cola, this family-owned soft drink is taking off in the US with the Queensland company now set to build a new factory to keep up with demand.

A family-owned soft drinks company founded in the Queensland sugar city of Bundaberg 60 years ago is gaining market share in the home of Coca-Cola and Pepsi where its iconic ginger beer has become a popular cocktail mixer.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks is now stocked in Walmart, Target and Costco stores across the US after sealing a distribution deal with PepsiCo in 2018.

The company will begin construction of a new $100m factory in Bundaberg this year to meet growing demand in the US and other markets including New Zealand, Romania, the United Kingdom, Singapore and China.

The expansion comes as the brand is showcased to a new generation of Australians in a national advertising campaign featuring company founder Cliff Fleming and the company’s origins in the canefields surrounding Bundaberg.

Bundaberg Brewed Drinks chief executive John McLean said exports would soon make up more than half of the company’s annual $150 million in sales and was set to increase further in the coming years. The company employs more than 240 people.

“COVID has thrown a bit of a spanner in the works but we are doing well in the US where we are stocked in the major chains,” said Mr McLean, who is Mr Fleming’s son-in-law.

He said the brand was an outlier in an industry dominated by giant corporate names such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi. “In an age when things are made in minutes, it still takes us three days to brew our ginger beer,” said Mr McLean. “Customers like that our drinks are handcrafted and that we brew all our beverages from Bundaberg.”

John McLean, CEO of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks

The US craft beverage industry is worth an estimated $1.5 billion as consumers seek brands that claim authenticity beyond mass market products.

Mr McLean said the company had secured a 44ha site in Bundaberg for its new factory, replacing its existing brewery that had served it for the past 50 years.

“The new brewery will serve us for the next 50 years and allows us to expand bottling and distribution facilities,” said Mr McLean.

The company’s popularity in the US has been helped by its mainstay ginger beer becoming a sought-after ingredient for the vodka-based Moscow Mule. It is now the number three ginger beer in the US nationally and number one in the western part of the country.

“It’s that indulgence in Moscow Mules and mixology that is really driving those sales in the US,” Mr McLean says. “They seem to have an ability to mix everything with ginger beer. There’s the Kentucky Mule, which is bourbon and ginger beer. The Mexican Mule, which is tequila and ginger beer. And the Irish Mule, which is Irish Whisky and ginger beer..”

At last count, a staggering 75 million bottles of its beverages were being sent overseas every year via the Port of Brisbane. That equates to an export rate of almost 2.5 bottles a second.

Bundaberg, a 4 ½ hour drive north of Brisbane, has produced two famous drinks brands - Bundaberg Brewed Drinks and Bundaberg Rum.

While Bundaberg Rum now forms part of the multinational Diageo drinks empire, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks remains a privately-owned family company.

Mr McLean said the intention was to always keep the business in family hands and produced locally. Queenslanders were shocked in 2019 when iconic icecream company Weis, based in Toowoomba. sold the business to Unilever and manufacturing was moved to NSW.

“That was a decision the Weis family made and while we cannot predict the future our intention is to remain a family owned company,” he said.

“Bundaberg is in our DNA and we are proud of remaining a 100 per cent, fourth-generation family-owned company based in our home town.”

He said the company’s new ad campaign, featuring founder Cliff Fleming reciting a bush poem about Bundaberg, reflected the importance of its home-grown roots. The ad titled “An Ode to a Great Australian” has been broadcast during the KFC Big Bash, the Boxing Day Test and Carols in the Domain.