A passion to do better for the environment drove Will Brook to devise a new business model, with 50 per cent of profits going to carbon reduction initiatives. Kim Berry writes. This article was first published in Food & Drink Business May 2021.
Will Brook grew up in the Byron Bay hinterland rehabilitating a native rainforest with his parents, the founders of premium cereal and snacks brand Brookfarm. Now CEO of the family’s business, Brook is pushing his passion for sustainability even further with the launch of We, the many.
“The kernel of the idea was that you must be able to have a business that is sustainable and does sustainable things. It was a talk by John Hewson at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership on tracking sustainable business that galvanised my thinking,” Brook tells Food & Drink Business.
“We wanted to do something where sustainability and business completely intertwine and are interdependent of each other, so there’s no afterthought, there’s no donation, the two are completely integrated.
“It came from a passion to do better from an environmental point of view,” he says.
The result is a business model where 50 per cent of profits go to organisations or projects that reduce carbon from the environment. The chosen projects have to be externally verified as viable, effective and successful, with metrics that prove their impact.
Brook says it is unnecessarily hard to find those initiatives.
“It’s a simple metric – it has to be a well performing business and it has to be reducing carbon. It could be a start-up, the stock market, a research project, solar and wind farms, regenerative farming, carbon sequestration. But it is a minefield at the moment. How do you know if the business is doing the right thing or if they’re going to stick around and what is my impact going to be?”
Brook is trying to illuminate the path for others as We, the many grows. He views it as an open learning opportunity to help other businesses adopt the financial circular economy.
“There’s a big responsibility component in creating this business. In Australia, we are very empowered to be responsible for ourselves and the impact we have on our community and environment. As a business, we’re taking that responsibility by coming up with what we think is a good way and a good model going forward – and giving consumers a way to make a change as well.
Product first
Of course, to make the profits you need to make – and sell – the products. Brook says the philosophy of Brookfarm remains: starting with a premium, great tasting product is critical.
It is well known that Brook’s mum and founder of Brookfarm Pam Brook develops and tests new products at the kitchen table, just like she did when she started selling the original three mueslis at local markets more than two decades ago. And she is fulfilling the same role at We, the many.
We, the many’s range is currently six products with three porridge and three granola flavours, tapping into the functional food and wellness market segments.
Each product has a hero ingredient with its own health benefits. Brook says the idea was to create a functional food range that contained enough of the ingredient to bring nutritional benefit and value as well as tasting good.
“Mum is still in the kitchen, the only difference is this time we have gone to the peak of looking at the health benefits of ingredients. And they taste phenomenal,” Brook says.
He says the products bridge the space between food and supplementation, while meeting the challenge of getting enough of the functional ingredients into a serving size to deliver the nutritional benefits.
“These are things you can inconspicuously get into your diet that will optimise your wellbeing and make you as healthy as you can possibly be.
“That’s the magic of product development – our products are real, natural foods with ingredients that are incredibly good for you. It’s about balancing flavours to make delicious food you want to eat it every day,” Brook says.
The Rise Beetroot Granola and Ascend Beetroot Porridge contains beetroot juice powder, which helps to improve exercise performance and reduce fatigue.
The Live Tumeric Granola and Alive Turmeric Porridge includes high doses of the active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin for its anti-inflammatory properties.
For the gut health range Wake Prebiotic Granola and Awaken Prebiotic Porridge, green banana resistant starch takes centre stage.
The chance to be a part of consumers’ everyday life was a factor in why cereals were chosen as the launch products.
“When people start their day with you it allows a connection to form. We see our customers as shareholders in our mission who are conscious about not only what they are eating but how it was made and what the values are of the company that made it,” Brook says.
Buying We, the many is consumers voting with their wallet, he says, and the company’s goal is for consumers to vote for the environment.
