Dennis Lin eyes US market for Health and Plant Protein Group

Health foods company Buderim Group wants to take more Australian brands to the North American.

Dennis Lin is taking over as chief executive of HPP Group, the renamed Buderim Group. Picture: Aaron Francis

Health foods company Buderim Group wants to take more Australian brands to the North American market as it is ramps up its plans to become a leading producer of plant-based proteins following the sale of its ginger production business.

The $13m sale of Buderim’s ginger assets, including The Ginger Factory at Yandina in Queensland to a family using the name Buderim Foods Pty Ltd, clears the way for the company to change its name to Health and Plant Protein Group (HPP).

China business specialist Dennis Lin, who is executive chairman of baby food company Bubs Australia, will take over as chief executive of HPP after previously driving the transformation of the company into a pure player in the lucrative macadamia nut market.

Owning RHO and MacFarms brands, HPP Group already distributes macadamias to more than 52,000 stores including Walmart and CVS Pharmacies and Mr Lin said the target was to get to 390,000 stores in the US within the next two to three years. Macadamias now contribute 60 per cent of HPP’s revenues.

But he said HPP wanted to use its macadamia distribution platform to take more Australian brands — including goats milk infant formula producer Bubs — into America.

“So many Australian brands want to attack the US. But the culture and consumption behaviour is quite different depending upon the region. And the channels are fragmented,’’ he said.

“One of our strategies is to look at taking Australian brands to the US and looking for acquisition opportunities of brands that are part of that health and plant protein market. The board and the investors believe plant protein is a genuine story, rather than creating substitutes.”

Born in Taiwan, Mr Lin has lived in Australia for more than 30 years and joined Bubs as a director in 2017. He is an associate of Bubs investor Albert Tse, a former Macquarie Bank executive who was also an investor in Buderim.

Mr Lin advised a Chinese consortium on its purchase of the giant S Kidman and Co pastoral properties before the deal was blocked by the Treasurer in 2015.

More recently the current Treasurer Josh Frydenberg blocked a $600m bid by China Mengniu Dairy Co to buy Lion Dairy & Drinks, despite advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board and Treasury that the deal should be approved.

The decision was made against the backdrop of increasing tensions between Australia and China over trade, which has created problems for wine, meat and barley exporters into the Chinese market.

“We have always seen a lot of volatility over the years. Right now the relationship is certainly more nuanced than in the last few years. I still feel comfortable where businesses can go. Because Australia is so rich in its resources — we have so much in terms of leverage and growth engines,” Mr Lin said. “I can’t do anything about the macro environment, but I can do my bit for the businesses I am involved in.

“You need to work through this. The people we work with (his investors) have seen plenty of the ups and downs. Are they concerned? Yes. But that topic never really left their mindset. It is a question of how far has the pendulum swung this time.”

Mr Lin recently launched a $US100m investment fund, Cortina Capital, which is focused on the health and wellness space and backed by family offices throughout Asia.

It plans to make investments in businesses with strong brand equity and positive cashflow in the food-as-medicine space and is looking to raise a further $US25m for an Australia-focused fund.

Cortina has already spent $15m to take a 30 per cent stake in health, sports and nutrition supplements company ATP Science.

“We are looking for authentic brands that have been around for a while and are transparent in their supply chain,” Mr Lin said.

“We are seeing quite a number of deals within this space, including some interesting health tech opportunities such as telehealth diagnosis-related opportunities.”