Sunshine Coast sustainable raw foods business targets huge first year

A former high-flying finance manager said goodbye to her lucrative career to start an eco-friendly bulk foods business on the Sunshine Coast. Here’s how she’s doing it:

A former high-flying finance manager turned entrepreneur is aiming for more than $1m in her business’ first year after attracting thousands of backers in weeks.

Raw Bulk Foods founder Stephanie Hughes previously worked as a finance manager where she was making about $200,000 annually and travelling the world as part of her job.

Mrs Hughes took gradual steps towards making more eco-friendly purchasing decisions in recent years which prompted her to start her own sustainable raw food business.

After leaving her lucrative career behind in October, the Coolum Beach entrepreneur is gearing up to launch her start-up on Kickstarter in mid-February off the back of a growing waiting list of customers.

Mrs Hughes said the strong early support for her products come after months of planning which included soft testing her ideas among consumers with surveys on social media.

“Since October, we’ve been working on our marketing strategy and finding out how do we tell people and excite people about it,” Mrs Hughes said.

Stephanie Hughes with her Raw Bulks Foods products

“We’ve been working on how to create a customer base before we go live on Kickstarter and we only started advertising six weeks ago and we’ve just been overwhelmed.

“We’re over 8000 people that have joined in that time and that’s not on a big budget because I didn’t have the capital, it’s a start-up and it’s just me running it.”

Raw Bulk Foods stocks about 260 pantry ingredients sourced primarily from Australian farmers such as oats, muesli, spices, dried fruits, rice and pasta which customers order online and have delivered to their home.

All of the company’s packaging are cleaned and reused at their Coolum Eco Industrial Park warehouse once customers return them with prepaid envelopes that come with their orders.

The start-up also sells jars made from upcycled glass, ocean plastics and bamboo to store pantry essentials.

Mrs Hughes is aiming to raise $112,000 on Kickstarter to help sustain her business after launch.

If successful, the entrepreneur has estimated her company’s first financial year revenue to exceed $1.6m which is also based on current waitlist demand.

She is also looking to have more than 12,500 households across Australia shopping on her business by next year.

Mrs Hughes said her company’s “circular economy” approach to pantry shopping enables her to pay farmers competitive wages while maintaining a steady profit.

“We have an overall margin that we’re going to make, it’s profitable and sustainable long-term,” Mrs Hughes said.

Raw Bulk Foods' range of pantry staples stored in their reusable jars which are made from recycled materials.

“We did a like-for-like comparisons with the major supermarkets and bulk food stores and we were cheaper than them all for the top 20 pantry staples, which means we’ve got a lot leaner supply chain and we’re offering better deals.”

Mrs Hughes has a long-term goal of conducting crowd equity funding to enable everyday people to become shareholders in her business.

Her website is expected to be running in June after her Kickstarter campaign concludes.

Originally published as Sunshine Coast sustainable raw foods business targets huge first year