Burleigh Heads-based goodMix on Gold Coast feeds appetite for functional foods

Naturopath Jeanie McClymont’s gut feeling about her breakfast mix has proved to be spot on with health food stores embracing her functional foods and a clinical trial with the CSIRO on the cards.

Burleigh Heads-based goodMix is feeding demand for functional foods.

NATUROPATH Jeanie McClymont’s gut feeling about her breakfast mix has proved to be spot on with health food stores embracing her functional foods and a clinical trial with the CSIRO on the cards.

Ms McClymont started goodMix seven years ago after becoming dissatisfied with the healthy breakfast options on the market.

“I remember walking around supermarkets (looking at cereals) and saying, ‘what is all this crap?’ I thought there had to be a better way,” she said.

“I wanted to eat something like cereal, quick and easy, but with actual nutritional value.”

Jeanie McClymont runs goodMix, which markets organic superfoods for people looking to improve gut health. Picture Glenn Hampson

Ms McClymont was working at a health food shop at the time and decided to come up with her own breakfast mix using the bulkfoods available in the store.

What she developed was initially called ‘breakfast booster’ and contained 11 nutrient-dense superfoods, including chia seeds, goji berries and buckwheat.

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People could add the vegan gluten-free mix to yoghurt, smoothies or a number of other breakfast meals.

The mix was designed to be soaked overnight to stimulate the seeds’ germination process.

Ms McClymont said she initially started selling the product at farmers’ markets.

Brad Hull and Jeanie McClymont. Picture Mike Batterham

“I would finish work, go home and mix some product, and then go sell it at the Sunday markets,” she said.

She said it soon became apparent, through feedback from customers, that the mix was beneficial to gut health.

“That surprised me and I started to do a lot more research,” Ms McClymont said.

“I later showed that to the CSIRO gut research team ­because we were given a ­government grant last year.

“We got data on what it is doing. It basically is fermented by the gut microbiomes, but then low fodmap, which tends not to aggravate people who are sensitive to those types of fermentable fibres.”

Ball Bags — a premix for protein balls — is another goodMix product. Picture: Mike Batterham

Twelve to 18 months into selling at farmers’ markets, Ms McClymont, with the support of her partner Brad Hull, decided to go full time with her business.

“Eventually it made sense not to go to work anymore because the business was ­taking over my life,” she said.

“There was quite a bit of demand from the markets with people asking where they could find the product.

“We had to get proper packaging and then set up an online store.

“We then started to supply health food stores pretty much all over Australia.”

A product from Burleigh Heads company goodMix.

New products were developed to go with the breakfast booster, now called Blend11.

They included a premix for protein balls, called Ball Bags, and a paleo-friendly version of Blend11.

Ms McClymont said the business eventually outgrew her garage and she moved to a warehouse and distribution facility in Burleigh Heads next to the House with No Steps: Burleigh Heads, a disability service provider that supplies workers to help with packaging goodMix products.

“We will outgrow that eventually and will have to move into automated machinery but it is working nice now.”

Ms McClymont said the business would need an injection of funding to take the next steps.

“We have moved a little bit away from markets more into stores,” she said.

“We are growing but we have to work on a few things like improving our packaging to make it more environmentally friendly.”

She is considering bringing in investors to help the business grow, including overseas, where it is already making inroads into the US market thanks to her brother Andrew McClymont.

Ms McClymont said she also wanted to engage the CSIRO for a clinical trial looking at the benefits of Blend11 to sufferers of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

“I want to get some more research done,” she said.

“The Blend11 is our star product by far. Just from the initial feedback, if I can secure more funding, they are happy to do a clinical trial with IBS sufferers.”