Teenager’s egg brand cracks supermarket success

Friendly, face-to-face communication with customers has been the winning formula for Josh’s Rainbow Eggs.

Clucky charm: Tamsyn and Josh Murray with their hens at Monegeetta in the Macedon Ranges. Picture: Zoe Phillips

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JOSH Murray has grown up a lot since he launched his free-range egg operation at the age of nine.

Now a confident 19-year-old entrepreneur who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in marketing, Josh’s business has matured almost as much as he has.

When Farm magazine profiled Josh’s Rainbow Eggs in 2012, Josh was 11 and looking after 400 chooks on his family’s property at Kerrie in the Macedon Ranges. Every weekend, the Murrays sold eggs at local farmers’ markets.

Josh was just 11 when Farm magazine first profiled his free-range egg operation. Now 19, Josh is still involved in the farm, with his mum, Tamsyn, overseeing operations and 15 staff. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Today, Josh’s Rainbow Eggs are on shelves in 60 major supermarkets, 10 independent retailers and the company employs 15 staff.

“When I first started out, the next level never really seemed like a big option until it was right there,” says Josh, looking back on the growth.

“First I wondered about selling at farmers’ markets, our production was ready to go and then, bang, we started. Then I had that same kind of feeling with supermarkets when we met the manager of our local FoodWorks at a farmers’ market. She was a customer of ours, and seemed receptive to the idea of stocking our eggs, then, bang, it was an option.”

After success in that first FoodWorks, at Riddles Creek, Josh and his mother, Dr Tamsyn Murray, wrote letters to the egg category manager at Coles, then Woolworths, and received positive receptions at both. They started direct-to-store supply with the Woodend branch of Coles and simply grew from there.

Tamsyn says the fact Josh was then 13 was a huge advantage when approaching supermarket buyers, but what really kept the customers repeat-purchasing was Josh’s in-store presence.

“What worked really well for Josh was that he treated each store like a farmers’ market in that he was present,” she says. “When you have customers that really want your eggs, and you are where they are, everything is really easy.

“We figured out the recipe to doing it well. We don’t do well in shopping centre supermarkets, for example. It is different – they are not families.”

As Josh’s school work became more demanding over the years, Tamsyn took a larger role in Josh’s Rainbow Eggs.

She now oversees the operation on 100 hectares at Monegeetta, in central Victoria, with a stocking density of about 500 chooks per hectare. Eight custom-designed mobile solar-powered sheds house the birds.

Hens on the Murray family’s 100-hectare property at Monegeetta. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“Our model is an extensive one because we move the sheds and because of that we allow the land to regenerate,” says Tamsyn, who also supervises all the grading, packing and delivery. “We go right from the hen to actually putting the egg on the shelf.”

This direct control of the supply chain has served them well during the coronavirus crisis. Josh’s Rainbow Eggs have been able to fill empty spaces on supermarket shelves when the distribution centre was too clunky to keep up with sudden panic buying.

“Logistically it is a bit of a nightmare,” Tamsyn admits, “and a lot of the other producers, the big guys, would say you’re crazy.”

But Tamsyn believes that direct delivery has offered other benefits as well.

“The fact you are there and physically put the eggs on the shelves. It might take you 45 minutes to rotate the eggs, but in that 45 minutes I can have 12 or 13 conversations with people,” she says.

To reduce business risk, the family is developing an egg-based snack. Josh is extremely excited about the new project, for which they have received a $50,000 Food Innovation Australia grant. They are narrowing down a field of 12 ideas including a ready-to-eat egg-mayonnaise and cracker pack, egg breakfast bar, egg-mayo sandwich filling and healthy egg noodles.

“One of my ideas seems to be the front runner, so I’m very excited right now,” Josh says.

For Tamsyn, the growth has been terrifying and exciting in equal measures. She says donating eggs to food charities Foodbank and Foodshare has helped her overcome the fear of the business growing too big.

“I get that there is something really good that comes with being bigger,” she says. “The good thing about growing is that you can have more of a positive impact.”

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