Victorian business Josh’s Rainbow eggs takes off, makes more than $5m a year

The idea from a then nine-year-old to get some pocket money has exploded into a multimillion dollar business with his products now stocked in major grocery chains.

The idea from a then 9-year-old to get some pocket money has exploded into a multimillion dollar business with his products now stocked in major grocery chains.

A nine-year-old boy’s simple plan to get himself some pocket money has exploded into a multimillion dollar business with his products now stocked on Coles and Woolworths shelves.

Tamsyn Murray, 54, recalled to news.com.au how her family moved into a pine plantation in Gisborne, north of Melbourne, more than a decade ago.

They cut down all the pine trees but were left with a vast wasteland while they decided what to sell at their new farm.

There were 40 hens that had been left by the previous owner that her eldest son Josh, then 9, took a keen interest in by collecting their eggs.

“I said ‘if you do all the work, then you can make all the money,’” Ms Murray said.

“He looked after the chickens, he had to feed them, clean out the coup, the hens were his responsibility, he started selling to neighbours but we only had three.”

But with too many eggs and not enough neighbours, Josh looked further afield, selling to local shopkeepers, a farmer’s market and finally talking his way into Australia’s two largest grocery stores.

His mother soon realised that this was the commercial product their farm should focus on producing and the family devoted all their resources into the new-found free-range chicken egg business, calling it ‘Josh’s Rainbow Eggs’.

In the last financial year, the company made $5 million in annual turnover and their eggs appear in more than 100 grocery stores across the state.

Josh, all grown up, with his mother Tamsyn Murray.

Josh was nine years old when he started tending the chickens on his family farm.

Josh’s Rainbow Eggs are now stocked in more than 100 Woolworths and Coles stores.

Josh made about $15,000 from the venture before his parents scaled up the business and hired their first worker in 2012, to help collect eggs from a whopping 1500 chickens.

By the following year, they had 2000 hens on their farm.

And by 2015, that number had exploded to 10,000 chickens, and eight employees working full-time collecting eggs.

They ended up having to move to a bigger and flatter farm in Monegeetta, which was more ideal for their chickens to roam free.

Ms Murray would not say how many chickens they have now, citing trade secrets.

Josh started selling in local markets from the age of 12.

His mother, Tamsyn Murray, went from being an academic to a small business owner.

Whenever they launch in a new store

The farm has more than 10,000 chickens.

Ms Murray said that from the age of 12, Josh used his business acumen to convince people to buy the eggs and they ended up selling cartons at the local Foodworks.

But Josh wanted more.

So they went to their local Coles store to start supplying their eggs but the manager said that was a decision for the Coles head office.

In 2015, Josh wrote a passionate and heartfelt email to Coles and later that day he and he his mum were invited to come into the Melbourne office to meet.

Soon their eggs were on Coles shelves.

Not wanting to stop there, they then approached Woolworths, who also snapped up the opportunity to sell their farm fresh eggs.

Josh now helps his family deliver the eggs.

Tamsyn Murray with business owner Emma Welsh of Emma & Tomswith at the Entrepenreur’s Organisation 360 Mentor Pilot Program.

Now seven years later, the business couldn’t be better.

“With Coles and Woollies everything changed, we could grow,” Ms Murray explained.

Josh’s Rainbow Eggs is now her full-time job.

“When tens of thousands eat your eggs every week, that’s a lot of people,” she added.

Now 21, Josh studies business majoring in marketing. With a driver’s licence behind him, he helps the chicken farm by completing deliveries.

Ms Murray has recently been part of a mentoring program run by Entrepeneurs’ Organisation to propel her business forward where she was connected with other likeminded business women from around Australia.