Chief executive Marcus Brown said all of the group’s main brands – Forbidden, Sensory Mills and Funch – are entirely plant-based across a range of products including black rice, protein balls, organic baby food and puree, and specialist flour and powders. “A lot of the home-eating trend has come right through,” he said.
Forbidden Foods products are sold in about 3500 retail outlets across Woolworths, the IGA independent retail stores supplied by Metcash, Drakes supermarkets and Costco. The company also supplies items to fast food chains including Hero Sushi and Zambrero.
Mr Brown said Forbidden Foods, established in 2010, ran a ”capital-light” model where it outsourced production and packaging. E-commerce sales have also been rising fast in the past six months as consumers bunkered down at home. Mr Brown said online sales had climbed tenfold in the past six months and were expected to keep accelerating. “That’s a big part of the business in the future,” he said. “It’s easy to scale.”
Forbidden Foods mainly uses Australia Post for its deliveries and Mr Brown said in the latest stage four lockdowns in Melbourne there had been some slight delays. But customers were very understanding about delivery logjams, he said.
Forbidden Foods sells about 10 per cent of its products overseas, with New Zealand the main export destination. Some product also goes to the United States and Britain. He said China would be a future target once the trade spat between Canberra and Beijing settled down.
IPO at 20c…. first day:
