Look what’s here! The April/May edition of the Food & Drink Business magazine has arrived - and we have a cover model!
Meeting and interviewing Cobot MD, Andrew Quayle, was a highlight of APPEX 2024. Here is someone passionate about onshore manufacturing and manufacturers of all sizes having options when it comes to purchasing equipment to optimise their businesses. Andrew and the team of engineers at Cobot have developed the Cobot Palletiser, a turnkey solution made in Australia (page 12).
This issue also showcases all the finalists in The Hive Awards. We provide a little taster of their excellence from page 16, just enough to whet your appetite before you buy your tickets to the long lunch we’re having to announce the winners on 16 May.
Our Rising Star this issue is Bower Hard Kombucha. A chance tasting in Los Angeles and seeing a gap in the local market inspired friends Emlyn Gavin and Oliver Budniak to create an Australian alcoholic kombucha. Read their story on page 10.
CommBank has come onboard to sponsor our Smart Business column, and this issue it looks at what three of Australia’s leading food and beverage manufacturers - Flavour Makers, JL King & Co, and Procal Dairies – are doing to prevent food waste, and reuse and recycle food to limit its impact. That’s on page 14.
We take a look at the popularity and growing use of functional ingredients on page 40. Consumers really cannot get enough of them. Take a global pandemic and people becoming more informed about nutrition, health, and wellness and you have a big opportunity for food and beverage companies to revamp existing and create new products.
Our regular contributor, national leader Manufacturing for RSM Australia, Jessica Olivier, explains how specialist advice helps companies navigate complex situations and business requirements, with two case studies providing different ways professional services helped. That’s on page 38.
We’ve got an update on the dairy sector (page 30), selecting the best flooring (page 44), finding the right factory designer (page 46), and a round-up on APPEX 2024 (page 48).
