Herbal Wellbeing Australia expands into the United Arab Emirates despite Covid-19

Being surrounded by the ‘super fit’ motivates Sunshine Coast company to switch its focus from medicines to Australian-grown vegan protein powder. Now they have expanded.

Herbal Wellbeing's Peter Attard. Picture: Supplied

Its Sunshine Coast location gave Mountain Creek health and natural medicine company, Herbal Wellbeing Australia, the impetus to formulate what has now become its flagship product.

Company marketing agent Peter Attard said being surrounded by the “super fit” was great motivation for Herbal Wellbeing to switch its focus from medicines to Australian-grown vegan protein powder recently.

“The Sunshine Coast is home to some of the fittest and most health-conscious people in the country and being surrounded by this crowd has certainly given us some great ideas for our brand,” Mr Attard said.

The company’s Australian-grown fava bean protein is 100 per cent plant-based and took the team at Herbal Wellbeing two years of hard work to get to market.

“Our protein is not just for building muscle mass, it’s overall health,” Mr Attard said.

“We have three versions designed to tackle immunity, digestion and movement and 80 per cent of our product uses Australian-sourced ingredients which is an Australian first for protein.

“You’ll often see other protein powders flying the Australian-made flag when less than 10 per cent of its product is sourced here.

“That’s not us. Our fava beans come from Australian farms and include Australian-native products such as native Kakadu plum and lemon myrtle.”

Mr Attard said the Herbal Wellbeing team decided early on it was integral to its brand to source product materials locally.

“Being located here on the Coast and actually talking to customers with demand for plant-based, locally-produced protein has informed our research and development,” he said.

Herbal Wellbeing’s Peter Attard. Picture: Supplied

Herbal Wellbeing expanded into the United Arab Emirates, overcoming difficult conditions with international trade due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have managed to source the right distributor and importer in the UAE entirely over email from the Sunshine Coast through very challenging world-trade conditions,” Mr Attard said.

“In the future we can’t wait to get our products in front of prospective global customers at the Hong Kong trade show and throughout Asia and beyond.”

Mr Attard said Herbal Wellbeing had been successful in building relationships through Trade and Investment Queensland to help market the fava bean protein products and its existing natural herbal medicine range.

“There are a lot of legalities when creating a natural medicine brand and we have overcome many hurdles to get to where we are today,” Mr Attard said.

“But we’ve always found it a benefit to be located here on the Coast. We are close to Brisbane if we need and we are surrounded by people and customers who really motivate us and love our products.”