Egg venture cracks deal

Big stride for former RFG CEO

THE former CEO of Retail Food Group has cracked one of the major supermarkets with his eggcellent new venture – Australian Pasteurised Eggs.

APE, founded in 2016, is based in Toowoomba and says its eggs are 99.999 per cent free of harmful bacteria due to the eggs being pasteurised in their shells in temperature-controlled water.

The company, owned by The Original Safe Eggs Assured Company Pty Ltd, which counts Mr Alford as sole director, previously tasted success with Aveo using its eggs at its Gold Coast facilities.

APE has since managed to get its product stocked at selected stores on the Gold Coast.

A Woolworths spokeswoman confirmed it had started selling the eggs although would not specify the number of stores where they are sold.

APE is based in a purpose-built $20 million factory at Wellcamp, outside Toowoomba where it is capable of producing 500,000 eggs per day.

It has two major shareholders comprising a company linked to the business’ commercial director Geoff Sondergeld and another owned by Mr Alford’s business partner Alicia Atkinson.

The Bulletin phoned APE’s headquarters multiple times and left messages with no response.

Mr Alford spent decades at RFG including stints as CEO and managing director.

He left his position as a non-executive director in 2017 before the company came under fire for what exfranchisees described as a brutal business model that left them financially devastated, having to sell their property or declare bankruptcy.

Mr Alford along with Ms Atkinson, also a former executive at RFG, in 2018 fronted a joint parliamentary inquiry into the franchising sector.

He repeatedly claimed he “had no insight” or “recollection” of the operations of the beleaguered franchisor.

He also claimed that the company, which bought multiple brands under his tenure, did not grow rapidly instead claiming it was systematic and planned.

The ACCC is yet to hand down the results of a more than year-long investigation into RFG.