Dwayne Martens is the founder of Amazonia a multi-million dollar health empire

HE IS a university drop out with an infectious personality and at just 30 years of age he’s created a multi-million dollar empire. So how did Dwayne Martens do it?

Uni drop-out: ‘I make a million dollars a month’

HE IS a university drop out with an infectious personality and he’s turned his love of travel into a multi-million dollar empire.

Dwayne Martens, just 30 years old, is the founder of superfood company Amazonia, best known for its import of the nutrient rich Amazon acai berries.

Now turning over in excess of one million dollars a month from the sale of natural vitamins, proteins and pre probiotics, this organic Fair Trade business has seen phenomenal growth.

Founded in 2008 at the young age of 22, Martens’ adventure is one of humble beginnings.

Introduced to the acai berry, popular for its anti-ageing and antioxidant properties, through a friend, Martens founded Amazonia in a friend’s kitchen in Fremantle, WA.

Dwayne is all about eating and living in the most sustainable way possible.

Spending countless hours packing the first ever Amazonia products, Martens set up a mobile juice bar at the local Fremantle markets, putting all his savings into the exotic berries.

“I started with $1000 and lost that in the first purchase of acai stock I made,” says Martens. But just one year later Amazonia was selling its products online and to health food stores and had made $2.4 million in sales with the following year’s sales soaring by an incredible 350 per cent. He featured on BRW’s list of entrepreneurs for 2014 in the health food industry.

Realising he was onto something, Marten quit uni in his final semester of a Health Science degree and joined forces with friend Chris Norden in QLD and together they ventured into the heart of the Amazon to source a direct sustainable supply of acai.

“We work with over 4000 families across 4000 acres of Amazon rainforest,” says Martens who has set up co-lots for local families to hand harvest the Acai berries.

“Acai is only grown in the Amazon on around 6.3 million acres and is the most abundant naturally occurring food in the world,” says Martens who believes the big future is in tree based foods.

Dwayne is also a motivational speaker and educator about sustainability.

“You can create an ecosystem around tree based foods. If done right, and in a conscious manner, you can really preserve and actually build rainforests to an extent there,” he says.

“I want my time on this earth to be a positive impact. Buying power is everything. You need to spend some time on the ground if you are serious about sourcing, you don’t want to just bring it in and flog it off,” he says.

Martens believes by providing financial incentives to local communities to hand harvest the berries it gives them more reason to keep the trees rather than cut them down, all part of his sustainable initiatives.

Today Amazonia has expanded into other products including coconuts in Thailand, cacao from Ecuador and most recently bayobat in Africa and has another 40 products coming to market this year.

“We’re just getting started,” says Martens who believes the trend towards health is only going to get bigger and says they have had 100 per cent growth the last two to three years running.

“Look at the stats, people are getting more unhealthy. We’re not eating food anymore, it’s the simple fact of the matter,” he says.

The son of a pig farmer in South Africa, Martens moved to Australia with his family at 13 years old after the farm was ransacked.

“I remember when we arrived at the airport and I found $2 on the floor, it meant so much to me, in Rand that’s like 20 rand and for a little kid I never forgot it,” he says.

But it is clear that wealth is not Martens driving force. Despite his multi-million dollar health food empire he sleeps in a teepee out the back of his Bellevue Hill house in Sydney

“I’m just one of those guys that’s a little bit out there,” he says.

Dwayne does things a little bit differently. You’ll often find him sleeping in his backyard teepee.