EVERY winter when it gets cold, wet and miserable I think “Why am I doing this?” and I consider my options for a career change.
How do you think I would go as a movie star?
We went to Melbourne for an overnighter for school holidays and everyone went to the museum – not my cup of tea.
So, I went and got a coffee at a cafe in Bourke Street and as I walked in, ordered my flat white and sat down, and I noticed the barista staring at me.
I ignored her, drank my coffee and filled in time.
Anyhoo, I got up to leave and she approached me and said: “I’m sorry but what movies have you been in? I’ve been googling and I can’t work out who you are, but I know you’re famous.”
I just smiled and said, “Well I haven’t done much lately.”
A gentle boost to my fragile ego.
My ego has also been boosted by an agreement to move from three Coles stores to another 30 to 50, starting in early November.
It will be a bit of a jump for us, and hopefully the transition is smooth and sales go well.
Sometimes with new stores I find it takes a month or two for customers to find the product on the shelf and try it, and while I like our branding, the bottles do not really jump out at you from the supermarket shelf.
We will also have our first decent regular presence in Echuca with a good store, starting in six or eight weeks, which is also pretty darn amazing.
I am checking progress on our bottling machine weekly and am desperate to get it installed.
I’m at the stage where I regret taking on a rebuild project (it’s been nearly 18 months on and off to get it ready) and wish we had just hire-purchased a new one.
But ask me in six weeks and it will be the best thing ever.
It can fill 10 bottles at once and put the lids on, and if the install goes smoothly (which it won’t) it will be a game-changer in terms of efficiency.
What I love about it is that it’s an old-fashioned American industrial-strength machine that has basically no electronics.
But it does have the capacity to do more than I want for at least the next five years.
I’m in the process of signing Bethune Lane Dairy chocolate milk bottles up for the mandatory container reuse scheme in Victoria.
Chocolate milk lovers will soon be able to get a 10-cent refund for bottles.
I have to fund this concept – or lift the consumer price.
The actual cost to our business will be 11-13 cents per bottle – plus administration – so you will understand that I’m not in love with the whole thing, but I guess we will take one for the team for the environment (and because we have no choice).
It’s not as though as famous movie star is going to quibble about a few cents here or there anyway.
