Adelaide Fruit and Veg Delivery - Around Adelaide and Kangaroo Island
Brendan, Jaccob and the team at Adelaide Fruit & Veg Delivery started out in the uncertainty of 2020’s early lockdowns bringing fresh produce from the Central Markets to people in their community. Now, as the business grows and changes, they chat to us about the challenges, wins and possible future directions for their exciting project.
The key stats.
Year established: 2020
Location: The business works with fruit and veg retailers mainly from the Adelaide Central Markets, but they operate mostly online - no brick and mortar business yet, they bring it to you!
Energy: Fuel for vehicles and people power
Capital: The main start-up costs were purchasing vehicles, establishing the business, building the website and growing the social platforms
Labour: Spread across 5-10 people, about 120 labour hours a week go into the business
Main production: Distributing local produce - primarily fruit and vegetables, but also other products such as milk, bread and meat.
Suppliers/Inputs: Adelaide Central Market Retailers, local SA businesses
Markets: Social media is the main way of selling the products. Their biggest customers are retail customers, particularly younger families and young mums wanting market quality produce and not using supermarkets.
Transport and reach: EcoCaddy distribution within the CBD, and by truck to the inner Adelaide suburbs
What’s the project, in a nutshell?
The project is all about building a food delivery service straight from the Central Markets to your front door that is good for people and good for the planet. Sustainability is key for Brendan, Jaccob and the rest of their small team at every step along the way, making sure that they minimise their carbon footprint through initiatives like their EcoCaddy bike partnership in the CBD, and cutting any unnecessary single-use packaging. It’s also always been about community — from the moment they started as a way to bring groceries to their neighbourhood in COVID lockdowns, to how the business operates now, supporting local businesses and their own teammates too. Everyone gets paid the same rate, and everyone’s opinions are valid and valued.
“Our purpose is to deliver fresh produce in an environmentally friendly way. We actively seek ways to reduce plastic waste and lower our carbon footprint… If we can create change in the industry, food miles, wastage, and consumption account for a huge part of humans’ contribution to climate change & pollution, it should be an industry that is sustainable.”
How did this all get started?
The business started in 2020 as a way to support the local community and help people get fresh food direct to their door straight from the Central Markets during lockdowns. Within days of putting the idea into action, people were requesting deliveries from all over Adelaide. It was a huge hit, and once things opened up again Brendan and the team realised that there were still so many people eager to support an alternative to big supermarket brands that provided local and minimally-packaged food with as low an environmental impact as possible. It’s been growing and developing ever since!
Any tips for those wanting to start something similar?
“Do a business plan! Make it flexible, not so concrete, some things will work and some won't.” When the project first started up it was a very impromptu, small-scale project, but that kind of foreplanning is something Brendan really sees the value in with hindsight.
“Be prepared to take risks and have some sleepless nights. Have a strong mindset that when you fail, because we all do, that you will learn from it. Making several mistakes and fixing them makes anyone more intelligent in how they run a business.”
What’s the biggest challenge so far?
In Brendan’s opinion, there’s no doubt that the biggest challenge in getting the business off the ground and developing the concept has been the lack of easily accessible support.
“We thought, doing something that is good for the community and the environment, that there would be some support.” Brendan says.
Initial start-up costs like buying equipment, products, advertising and training made funding one of the biggest barriers for the business, and while they could see a lot of government investment going into awareness campaigns around the environment and single-use plastics, they struggled to find funding for projects like their own.
“Even a drop of the funds that were put towards that we could have done a mountain load of good work.” He adds.
It’s an ongoing struggle, but for now the best working solutions they have are frugality and having a small, hard-working and committed team who love working for a business that shares their values.
What’s the best part?
In Brendan’s mind, the best part about the project is the capacity it gives them to start making the progress they’ve wanted to see in the industry — to help influence positive change. In an economy geared toward competition and profit, Brendan points out that it’s not always easy to make the most ethical choices as much as a business might want to, and that there’s still very little by way of support systems helping businesses do that. That’s why it’s so valuable for Brendan and the team that they can play a role in sharing what they’ve learned with others, and supporting other food businesses to incorporate sustainability more into their values.
“We have seen our competitors change some of their processes to be more environmentally conscious, we see that as a win. Our goal isn’t competition and beating them, we are wanting to create change, and if our competitors change how they are doing it — we are winning.”
Why support a local food system in South Australia?
Brendan says that the common narrative around buying local puts the economic benefits front and centre - benefits like strong local industry and employment. He sees these as great reasons to buy local, but they’re not the reasons that motivate him the most.
“The environmental implications of buying local are incredible. Food miles could be drastically reduced and have a huge impact on our carbon footprints if we all bought local.” He says.
“Learning this has certainly turned me away from my much loved bananas from Queensland and instead towards Pink Lady apples from the Adelaide hills, or citrus from the Riverland. There are no downsides to buying local, we should all be doing it.”
Tell us about the future – what’s next?
From humble beginnings, the project has already grown a lot in the ways it delivers and the groups it works with, but the team is still working towards some bigger long-term goals around the environmental sustainability of the business and expanding their reach.
“We have started working with school camps and tourism companies doing their catering for the trips.” Brendan explains, noting the importance to the team of keeping the same principles of locally sourced, low carbon footprint and minimally packaged food - values that their new partners appreciate. “The kids love it, and the teachers on the camps love it and use it to teach the children. The tour guides for the adults use it to talk about the importance of buying local and without plastic.”
Slowly but steadily, Brendan, Jaccob and the team are working hard to do the best they can with limited resources to expand the ways they can spread their values around sustainable, locally sourced food.
“We want to see this grow… there are so many potential ideas we can do, only so much time and money we have to put towards it.”
We can’t wait to see how the business continues to build and grow.
Ways to get in touch.
Website | www.adelaidefruitandvegetabledelivery.com/
Facebook | @AdelaideFruitandVeg