You don’t expect to read about dinosaurs in the ASX announcements feed. Mainly because they’re extinct, but also because they aren’t usually a hot topic in corporate Australia.
Our long dead reptilian friends are making news this morning with premium food and beverage company Forbidden Foods (ASX: FFF) planning to expand distribution of their Blue Dinosaur range of plant-based snack bars to Malaysia.
The Company has entered into an exclusive agreement with Uway Australia for its subsidiary H&W Food Sdn Bhd to distribute the bars through their network of more than 1,500 distribution points. H&W will also market the Blue Dinosaur brand within the country.
The Blue Dinosaur range of snack bars were created from a desire to have healthy snacks that don’t taste awful, or “make [your] stomach feel as though [you’ve] swallowed a bag of nails”. At least, that’s what founder Mike Watts-Seale writes in the brand’s information section on their website. Exuding authenticity that honestly makes me want to go buy a stack, Mike writes: “We started Blue Dinosaur to be a whole new option of healthy snacking. Little hand-baked snacks consisting of very few ingredients which taste as good as your Nan’s cooking and can fit in your pocket. We eat food because it’s food, and we make good food to be just that, good food.”
The bars come in many different flavours such as Mylk Choc, Caramel Choc, Custard and Raspberry, all packaged in home compostable wrappers (!!). Seeing potential to expand the brand, Forbidden Foods acquired Blue Dinosaur for $4 million back in September of 2021.
Already looking after the distribution of other well known brands in Malaysia like Golden Circle (think crumpets and pikelets), Nestle and Cadbury, H&W is a clear choice for Forbidden Foods’ next step.
The deal marks the first export agreement for Blue Dinosaur into Asia and will target a total sales figure of $810,000 by 30 June 2021. The agreement is being supported by an initial purchase order of $30,000 which will see Blue Dinosaur appear in selected supermarket chains including those operated by Dairy Farm International, a leading pan-Asian retailer with a network of over 10,200 stores across the continent.
“We are delighted to sign our first export agreement into Asia for Blue Dinosaur and welcome a new distribution partner in H&W Food and their team,” said Forbidden Foods Co-founder and CEO, Marcus Brown. “For the brand to enter a large, new market such as Malaysia with ranging already secured, provides significant visibility in market from day one. We look forward to further solidifying our relationship with H&W Food and we continue to explore options to expand the penetration of Blue Dinosaur across Asia.”
In an effort to make their products available to more people, Forbidden Foods is also obtaining Halal certification for their snack bar range. Once received, this certification will only expand the possible markets for Blue Dinosaur products.
Samantha Freidin is a business journalist at Emerald Financial whilst also completing a Masters of Marketing and Digital Communications at Monash University.
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