Melbourne business Bobby lands Coles deals

The Melbourne man didn’t make a “bucketload on crypto” but his new product is headed for Coles.

Kristian Johannsen has a goal to take on the big players in soft drink such as Coca-Cola and less than a year into launching his business he has scored a deal with Coles.

The 30-year-old saw a trend in the US for “better for you” soft drinks that are low in sugar and filled with prebiotics and wanted to bring it over to Australia.

But he said the products from the US had drifted away from the classic fizzy drinks such as Solo, Fanta and Coke and he wanted to ensure taste wasn’t a barrier to pick up his product.

He said was also he tired of having to choose “between sickly sweet” fizzy drinks or “health drinks that lacked flavour and fun”.

“Obviously functional and healthy drinks are not something new. Kombucha is the most recognisable one over the last five to eight years but there was a barrier to entry with the taste profile of kombucha. It didn’t allow for people to adopt it like the masses do with Coke or Sprite, up to 100 years after they were created,” he told news.com.au.

“So it was about recognising and understanding that consumers want to make better choices but always revert back to what tastes best. But definitely people love being able to enjoy soft drink without the guilt.”

He launched his business Bobby in September last year creating four different drink flavours that contain sunfiber, an all-natural prebiotic, with zero preservatives and artificial flavours according to Mr Johannsen.

The flavours include lemon, berry, orange and cola, which are sold for $4.

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The range of Bobby soft drinks. Picture: Supplied

But the Melbourne man has experienced his fair share of frustrations trying to get the business off the ground with production of the soft drinks seriously hampered.

Despite the product being finalised in September 2021, he wasn’t able to bring it to life until May this year.

“There were a whole bunch of things. There was a lack of aluminium available in Australia to print on the cans and it takes about seven minutes to print about 50,000 cans,” he said.

“But there is a minimum order to do with printers and we were waiting for raw materials and downtime for manufacturing.

“It was frustrating as we had to launch heading into winter and it’s the quietest period but we are in good position to head into warmer months to have a big first summer.”

Founder Kristian Johannsen wants to take on the big guns in the competitive category. Picture: Supplied

Yet, he’s up for the challenge in the “competitive” category and said he used his savings, which wasn’t “a huge amount of money” before bringing on investors to get Bobby cranking.

“It’s an extremely cost heavy business and production you have to fund out of cash as you don’t get payment terms out of manufacturers and you are a paying higher cost of goods as don’t have the volume,” he noted.

“If anyone that knows a bit about this type of business, I either would have had to make a bucketload on crypto or have investors to create it and it’s definitely the latter.”

The soft drinks are are set to hit Coles soon. Picture: Supplied

Next up Bobby is launching into Coles local “bougie” supermarkets in November, which include 20 outlets scattered throughout NSW and Victoria, he said.

Mr Johannsen said the business has projected it will sell 1.4 million cans overall in its first year.

There are also plans to export overseas with Asia a big target and it aims to be carbon positive by 2025.