HOW is the new Coles supermarket deal going?
It’s too early to tell, but what I do know is we probably, in fact definitely, were not ready to mix it with the big boys.
So we will fake it ’til we make it (but please just keep that under your hat, and if anyone asks, well, we are in complete control).
In truth I’m a bit scared about how it will play out – the opportunities are enormous, but the risks are pretty solid too.
I have equal numbers of farmers who sell to Coles and who swear they are awesome to deal with – and just as many others who will assure me the big supermarket machine will squash you like a bug.
Therefore, I’m going to do what I always do, which is to trust until proven otherwise – I find trust is usually rewarded.
They did give us our biggest single daily order for one customer, which was 2500. Add that one to our other orders of that week, and it put us around 4500 chocolate milks.
Which seriously tested our ability to get it done on the day.
Ideally, in the very near future, we will be getting orders like that all the time – and we will find filling them will be a walk in the park.
I reckon it will take six months before I can answer the Coles question with any confidence.
After all, it takes customers time to see the product on the shelf, then be brave enough to try the product, and then get hooked on it.
World domination by chocolate has long been my not-so-secret plan.
Harris Farm markets in NSW, with 27 supermarkets, have been our biggest chocolate milk customer for some time and they have been awesome to deal with.
As a risk management tool, I would like to find one more major customer as I don’t want Coles to be our biggest customer by a mile and us to be too dependent or exposed to a single business – a shared risk is always a safer risk.
That basically has to be one of Woolies, Drakes or IGA and no, I’m not quite sure yet how I will pull that one off.
If any readers are best mates with the head dairy buyers for any of these companies, I would like to be friends with you – really good friends.
One thing I’ve learnt is it’s not a meritocracy, getting access to supermarkets, it’s more of a who do I know who knows someone who can help me scenario.
I’ve been on a bit of a burst lately, making iced coffee again, and the key requisite for it to go forward is that I love it.
I was nearly giddy with joy at my most recent tasting trials.
Of course there is a (small) chance that could have been the caffeine from trying 10 different iced coffees, but I’m opting for joy because it’s Christmas and I feel as if it is nearly in my grasp – flavour and concept wise.
Last time I could make great coffee but not hold the flavour for the 22-day shelf life.
I even phoned a food chemist, technician kind of guy, and he told me most of the homemade/barista style coffee making techniques will have trouble with storage/longevity due to imbedded high microbial loads, which will disperse the flavour over time.
However, he added it could be easily fixed, which is why sometimes I find when a problem’s too hard it just means I haven’t asked enough people yet.
So now, with that problem solved, my only remaining dilemma is what to buy Sally for Christmas.
After all, what can you buy someone who has loved and cared for you for 17 years, unconditionally loves and pretty much singlehandedly raises five wombats, is the best calf rearer in the Southern Hemisphere and is the glue which holds all the people in our farm business together?
And still finds time for a ridiculous, repeat ridiculous, amount of voluntary community work, which she loves doing.
How can you find a present appropriate for that?
I’m pretty sure a tea towel isn’t going to cut the mustard – maybe this is a two tea towel (with a Ferrero Rocher inside) scenario for safety’s sake.
Season’s greetings to you all.
