Vegetable farmers grow into a Victorian powerhouse

THE Kelly family is vegetable growing royalty.

Vegetable grower Richard Kelly

THE Kelly family is vegetable growing royalty.

Founded near Melbourne almost 150 years ago, the business has grown to become one of the biggest vegetable-growing operations in Victoria.

Which means their latest foray into home delivery of fresh vegetables to Melbourne homes is worth watching.

The idea was the brainchild of third generation of the Kelly vegetable growers, Richard and wife Heidi.

And like many good ideas, it was born out of frustration.

"We knew that we had to do something different to remain viable," Richard said. "But it was also about being able to share the quality of our produce and know that it wouldn't be days or weeks between when we pick and when it is used."

The Kelly enterprise is centred on a farm next to the Murray River, midway between Cobram and Yarrawonga. From there they send two B-doubles of vegetables to Melbourne each morning.

They grow a vast range of vegetables - everything from leeks to lettuces, spinach to zucchinis, capsicums, eggplants, corn, chilli and the perennial performer, parsnips - under 400ha of sprinkler irrigation.

But with the decline of supermarket buying teams and increase in centralised buying operations, the Kellys found they had less say in what they could sell.

"We were frustrated in terms of the time it takes for our high-quality vegetables to get to the consumer," Richard said.

"We thought that if we could organise a home-delivery business, that it could get to consumers at least four to five days quicker than it would normally."

Freshness has been one of the key points the Kellys have concentrated on in their marketing.

Their home-delivery boxes are branded with the slogan "Harvest to Home in 36 hours".

They knew they produced high-quality vegetables but were wise enough to leave the business of promotion to professionals.

They engaged a marketing team to give them advice on the hows, whys and whats of making their ideas professional and appealing.

"We are great at growing vegetables and we have a terrific team of people on our farm who can do that," Richard said.

"But we know what we are good at and what we are not - so that's why we spent the money to get the professional advice on marketing."

That advice suggested they use the internet - their kelly-bros.com.au website - and Facebook to build up a profile and a potential network of customers willing to have vegetables home-delivered.

They were also advised to sell the story of their family's long association with vegetable growing, and even post pictures of when they were planting and carrying out other tasks.

The Kellys pack the vegetable boxes, which come with a seasonal mix that changes from week to week, at their packing shed in Yarrawonga.

The boxes come in three sizes, ranging from $28 to $45, and are delivered to the customer's door at that price. The boxes are mostly filled with their own produce, including vegetables and herbs, but to add variety, they source locally grown fruit and vegetables.

Richard said they would expand their current line of 20 vegetable to 30 to be able to supply a wider variety of vegetables to their customers.

"We will cut down the volume of each vegetable and grower a bigger number of vegetables," he said.

The Kellys knew they had the growing bit of the business down pat.

But it was the marketing and delivery that posed the biggest challenges.

Richard investigated a number of courier companies before deciding this was part of the business they needed to keep control of.

"We asked courier companies and they said they could do it one day or maybe the next," he said.

 "When you are building your reputation on freshness and quality, you can't have your boxes of vegetables hanging around in trucks or sheds.

"So we bit the bullet and bought vans which we'll use to do runs around Melbourne delivering to the door."

The vegetable boxes will be packed in Yarrawonga, then trucked to a depot in Mulgrave where they will then be distributed, all within 36 hours, six days a week.

Meanwhile, the Kellys will continue to supply their stand at the Melbourne Wholesale Markets, fill orders with supermarkets and other customers.

But they are pinning their hopes on the home delivery business taking more and more of their produce.

"If we can get 50 per cent of our produce going into home deliveries, we will be going well," Richard said.

"This will mean we can control some of our own destiny.

"The most frustrating part is growing something and having to plough it back in because you can't sell it.

"Vegetables have such a short storage life.

 "Even things like pumpkins: if you are storing them then so is everyone else so the prices never really come up."

Richard and Heidi are keen to keep the business in the family, but also want to ensure it remains profitable.

"We want our family on the farm and we are proud of what we do but it is disappointing not to get the returns," he said.

"We wanted to set up a system, have the ability to expand rapidly and are poised right now for that to happen."