Tough start but it’s looking sweet now
IN November last year Gold Coast businessman Andrej Maletic left the full-time security of his job in project management to work on his organic desserts venture.
The timing – just a few months before COVID-19 struck in Australia – was less than ideal.
However, many months down the track Mr Maletic now has a thriving business delivering thousands of tubs of his organic cashew cream mousse to health-conscious consumers looking for nutritious sweet treats.
Mr Maletic launched Goraw desserts in 2014, selling his mousse at local farmers markets.
“We were trying to eat healthier but wanted something more satisfying and tastier than overboiled broccoli,” he said.
“That’s when we recognised there was a real gap in
the market for ‘guilt-free’ delicious treats, without the hidden nasties.
“We created the organic mousse recipe and started selling it at our local farmers market and from there the business really began to grow organically.”
He said customers, broadly speaking, could be broken down into two categories.
There were the healthconscious consumers such as mums who were looking for organic treats for their children and then people with food intolerances seeking out gluten and dairy-free desserts.
Mr Maletic said he was taken back by the demand in the early days.
One of the first markets he attended was the Palm Beach Farmers Market.
“I thought it was interesting people came back week after week,” he said.
Eighteen months after launching the concept, Mr Maletic scored a coup when the Gold Coast-founded
Flannerys chain decided to stock the desserts.
“I walked into our local health food shop to see whether they would be interested in stocking goraw desserts,” he said.
“At this stage it was just a plastic tub with a sticker on it – but they said yes to stocking the mousse at 10 of their stores in the Gold Coast area.”
That was the start of Goraw distributing its desserts to health food retailers not only in Queensland but NSW and Victoria as well.
When the effects of COVID-19 hit hard in March, Mr Maletic found, like hundreds of other businesses, that he needed to pivot.
“We got impacted pretty badly,” he said. “Some stores closed down and experienced a significant downturn.
“Luxury or high-end desserts was not the toilet paper of the world.”
Mr Maletic decided to set up an online store but that came with difficulties as well.
“We thought we could go direct to consumer,” he said.
“The most difficult component of setting up the store was the logistics. We are one of the only companies in Australia outside of meal delivery companies that will deliver a refrigerated product to consumers.”
Today Goraw delivers direct to consumer for free on the Gold Coast and Brisbane and charges a flat $9.90 fee everywhere else in Australia.
The other expensive part of the business is the production process, which is very labour intensive.
It involves firstly blending together the ingredients into a mousse.
The mousse is “layered” with chocolate on the bottom then a layer of the cashew cream, which is left to sit, before another layer is applied and then chocolate is drizzled on top.
“This is not the most efficient way but our customers love us for it so I’m hesitant to change,” he said.
Goraw now sells thousands of its tubs – which come in seven flavours including mint chocolate, vanilla and cherry – in health food shops and direct to consumers each week.
Mr Maletic would not specify revenue for FY20 other than to say it was “sub$1 million”.
However, he said he is looking to other ways to fund the expansion of the business in the next three years through crowd funding or possibly acquisition.
He also wants to enter the food service market supplying to cafes and restaurants.
WE WERE TRYING TO EAT HEALTHIER BUT WANTED SOMETHING MORE SATISFYING AND TASTIER THAN OVERBOILED BROCCOLI ANDREJ MALETIC