Good Earth Dairy: This Australian ‘non-dairy milk’ company is betting big on camel milk
https://dynamicbusiness.com.au/topics/news/this-australian-non-dairy-milk-company-is-betting-big-on-camel-milk.html
After raising $1 million in its first equity crowdfund in October last year, Western Australia’s first commercial camel milk dairy, Good Earth Dairy, launched its second equity crowdfund on funding platform Birchal earlier in July.
The company said it would use cash to expand operations, pay the initial construction and permissions of their niche 5000 head dairy, and accelerate Good Earth Dairy’s growth. Six-year-old Good Earth Dairy was founded to disrupt the conventional dairy industry.
Dynamic Business spoke with Executive Chair & CEO Marcel Steingiesser about the second fundraise and how he expects to use the funds to strengthen the company’s position in the Australian dairy market.
“Our intention for Good Earth Dairy is to be a major disruption to the $552 billion dairy industry.
“Through this crowdfund, we aim to commence our next phase of growth that includes a 5000 head dairy and an $8.7 million powder manufacturing facility.”
The company produces camel milk, which it says is an easy-to-digest dairy product that tastes similar to cow’s milk, but without allergens and environmental impacts.
Stephen Geppert, co-founder and cameleer, came up with the camel milk concept and shared experiment results with agricultural sector innovator Henry Steingiesser and the late Kim Chance, former West Australian Minister for Agriculture.
“Camel milk has some of the best nutritional and hypoallergenic properties but suffered because of the high cost of production.
“We recognised camel milk to be a major disruption to the dairy industry, and we knew we were capable of developing innovations to reduce production costs and thus transform the industry,” Mr Steingiesser said.
Good Earth dairy now boasts over 500 shareholders.
“From Oct 2020, we have obtained over 450 new shareholders utilising the record-breaking Australian equity crowdfund (at the time) who came from all over Australia.
“The first campaign brought over 450 new shareholders bringing the total number to over 500. The total raised was for $1.2 million with an extra $155,000 coming in from a single wholesale investor shortly after,” Mr Steingiesser said.
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Thorough article with lots of sector info. I am wondering if the matching grant opportunity that was a mentioned a number of times (and used as the justification for this second raise) has perhaps come and gone. Without said grant, I guess I feel a bit more neutral about the need for a second raise right now, but we'll find out soon.
https://www.birchal.com/company/goodearthdairy
