Meet Bec and Narelle Thompson. The powerhouse sister duo who this month are celebrating their first birthday for the Cubbyhouse Canteen retail venture.

The Cubbyhouse Canteen brand is a childrens lifestyle brand supporting youth mental health - but the brand is not actually new.

For 15 years Bec & Narelle have enjoyed life within their thriving Cubbyhouse Canteen parkside cafe at Union Park in Armadale in the South East suburbs of Melbourne.

Over the 15 year journey, the girls have developed a fabulous large loyal following of young families through the park and of course now an even larger following as Ollie and Ted make there way around Australia.

Bec has baked (amongst other tasty morsels) close to 500,000 gingerbread people over this 15 year journey so it seemed natural for a range of all natural gingerbread to be the starting point for a venture into a packaged product range for retail.

Cubbyhouse Canteen has partnered with Kids helpline and donates a % of sales for this fabulous cause.

Channel 9's A Current Affair recently captured and aired the story magnificently.

Link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5HzhNCgsNg

Also see Insta:
cubbyhousecanteen

and web:

https://www.cubbyhousecanteen.com.au/

I hope you enjoy episode #28 of the Food Mentor Podcast.


David Burns is also the founder of DJB Food Group and Creme design helping manufacturers, brands and entrepreneurs develop innovative new products and brands to distribute into retail. In 2024 our clients will have achieved $60mil in sales from brands and product ranges we have developed in the prior 24 months. Reach out for a chat anytime!

Would you like to be a guest on our show or sponsor an episode to reach your target audience?
Connect with us anytime david@djbfoodgroup.com

In this episode of The Food Mentor podcast, I’m chatting with Arianne Sackville, founder of Bell and Bone, a pet food brand all about healthy, natural ingredients for dogs. Arianne shares her career journey, beginning with her university days at Monash and an internship at IBM, where she learned the importance of working for a brand she's passionate about. Arianne then decided that corporate life wasn’t for her. This led her to start her own business in the pet care industry, inspired by her dog Louis and a desire to make a positive impact on pet health.

Arianne discusses the values behind Bell and Bone, emphasizing the importance of transparency, quality ingredients, and community.

Since recording this podcast Arianne has launched an exciting new range for cats.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Food Mentor Podcast.

It’s not often you get the opportunity to chat with a successful brand co founder that sold to a multinational for 200 Million Pounds just 10 years after launching their brand in the UK.

The brand is of course Grenade. Launching in the UK in 2010 with the vision of being an iconic weight loss product and the go to brand within Sports Nutrition.

This really is a fabulous chat with Juliet Barratt who with husband Alan identified a gap in the market then took the Grenade brand into 80 countries over a decade, before selling to Mondelez International in 2021.

This is a great listen for anyone in the food and beverage game. I hope you enjoy episode #26 of The Food Mentor Podcast.

https://www.business-sale.com/news/business-sale/mondelez-acquires-grenade-at-40x-multiple-221314

Today we are talking all things chewing gum.

But not any old chewing gum.

A big welcome to Marie Hatzimihalis the founder of Honest Gum (other wise known as The Gum Girl)

Honest Gum is the new frontier of chewing gum - ethically crafted and sustainably made and unlike other chewing gums on the market Honest Gum is made without a synthetic gum base.

Honest Gum is also packed with real ingredients and all natural flavours.

Marie founded Honest Gum 10 years ago and like any brand has enjoyed a fabulous roller coaster journey to arrive here in August 2024.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Food Mentor Podcast.

Follow the Honest Gum journey at
Insta; Honestgum
&
https://www.honestgum.com.au/

Today we are chatting with an industry colleague of mine Tony Hunter.

I met Tony about 5 years ago and I must say my first chat with him was extremely fascinating to say the least.

Tony lives in Brisbane here in Australia and is a Food Futurist, renowned for helping manufacturers, retailers and the food industry in general understand what the future of food will look like in 10, 20 and 30+ years time.

We all love talking about trends and what could be next – but this chat is on another new level, where we look at what’s in store for generations to come.

Tony is also a popular key note speaker on this fascinating topic of “The future of food” travelling frequently to exotic parts of the world helping to educate the industry on how to keep up in this rapidly changing food landscape that we live in.

How will technology and AI impact food manufacturing in years to come?

Alternative proteins, cell based meat, precision fermentation are just a few of the topics we chat through.

This is truly a fascinating episode, whereas always you will meet someone very interesting and learn something new – guaranteed.

I hope you enjoy this episode of The Food Mentor Podcast.

Tony’s website is here;
https://futuristforfood.com/

This episode of the food mentor podcast takes a slight twist into the hospitality and hotel management world.

On a recent business trip to Indonesia I met a fantastic Australian Brendan Lane Mullins the General Manager of Bali’s leading luxury hotel The Seminyak Spa and resort.

https://www.theseminyak.com

As most people would know Seminyak in Bali is one of the most popular tourists spots in Asia.

I thought Brendan would be a fantastic guest on our Food Mentor Podcast and I was absolutely correct.
Take a listen to Brendan’s background and how he has used his hotel management experience to travel the world.
Amongst many topics we chat about the incredibly friendly Balinese people and how this culture creates superb hospitality service.

This is a great story including the day in the life of a Hotel General Manager in a luxury hotel in one of the worlds most visited towns - Seminyak, Bali!

Listen out for Brendan’s special promo code to guarantee you the cheapest rate on the market.

A fabulous podcast for budding hospitality folk looking to work and travel.

I hope you enjoy this podcast!

There’s never a dull moment in the food manufacturing world and this story is no different.

Milo Gaffney has just celebrated his 20th Anniversary of The Outback Pie Company, having founded the business at the end of 2003 with his family.

Milo has created a fabulous business by innovating, differentiating and filling the gaps in the market that major competitors have left behind!

On top of that, The Outback Pie Company is based up in Australia’s tropical north QLD’s balmy Townsville, opposite the magnificent Magnetic Island.

http://www.outbackpieco.com.au/

This is a fabulous chat with some fabulous pearls of wisdom from Milo.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Food Mentor Podcast.

Welcome back to the food mentor podcast I’m David Burns your host and today we are chatting to a delightful couple Cindy and Joe who are based in Sunny Perth, Australia.

Cindy and Joe established Seven Oaks Catering 10 years ago and it has now become one of Australia’s leading corporate catering businesses supply 1000’s of platters a month of delicious fair to Perth’s corporate community.

Of course it is now perfect timing to create a retail brand and packaged offer to help fuel the future growth of this fabulous business.

Lets chat with Cindy and Joe about their plans to launch their new retail brand and how they plan to diversify into a packaged retail range.

Their website here:

www.sevenoakscatering.com.au

I hope you enjoy this podcast.

This episode of the Food Mentor podcast is brought to you by Naturally Good, Australia's leading event for natural & healthy products, connecting brands with retail buyers.

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