Buderim Ginger shares future company plans after 80 years in business

It may be an oldie among the Sunshine Coast business community but Buderim Ginger shows that even after 80 years it has the ability to come up with some new tricks.

Ginger Factory, home of Buderim Ginger, is one of the Sunshine Coast's most popular tourist attractions.

After 80 years in business, Buderim Ginger is hardly a start-up, but if you ask chief executive Andrew Bond, they’re an 80-year-old incubator.

“We have to constantly warp and change and innovate as if we’re brand new,” Mr Bond said.

“The key to our longevity is being able to look forward and plan for that change, but remain true to our brand.

“What people like about us is our authenticity, and that’s what we strive to protect at all costs.”

The name Buderim Ginger is synonymous with the Sunshine Coast, having began as a ginger growers cooperative in 1941, transitioning to the ASX as a listed company in 1989, then privatising again at the end of 2021.

And although the name reflects where it all began – when ginger grew on the plateaus of Buderim now covered in supermarkets and houses – the company moved to its Yandina location in 1980 to accommodate expansion.

Chief executive of Buderim Foods, the owner of the Yandina Ginger Factory, Andrew Bond is excited for the company’s new era under ownership of the Himstedt family.

Many locals will have visited the business’s tourism arm – The Ginger Factory in Yandina.

The iconic company sold for $13 million to Tom Himstedt, whose family was behind the food essence brand Queen, in September 2020.

In 2019, the company won the prestigious Sunshine Coast Business Award.

And Mr Bond said it was also ranked in the Top 10 per cent of Global Attractions on TripAdvisor.

“But even though we’ve had that stability and household name, we have to work really hard to get the word out to our community, like other younger businesses,” Mr Bond said.

“We have to constantly innovate to market our brand, it never stops.”

But it’s their products that help put the Sunshine Coast on the map, with locally-grown and processed ginger exported to 17 countries globally – with Canadians having a particular penchant for Buderim’s non-alcoholic ginger beer.

“We are constantly evolving and capitalising on the versatility of ginger itself – a gluten free, nut-free, vegan product, and we are lucky that 75 per cent of Australia’s entire ginger output is grown on the Sunshine Coast,” Mr Bond said.

“We are heavily investing in research and development right now to create new products to meet customer demands, such as sugar-free alternatives.”

Along with constantly changing their offerings, Mr Bond said maintaining relationships has been a key to continued success.

“Some of our growers have been with us for many generations, like the Templeton family, who now have a fourth-generation connection with Buderim Ginger,” he said.

“You can never take those relationships for granted, you have to focus on building and strengthening relationships at every turn, it’s imperative to growth.”