Weekly Times story today

I saw this story in The Weekly Times (written by Alexandra Laskie) today. It is a good story so I thought I'd share it. GLTA

Staff revive direct sales to city homes.

Farm fresh: Former Aussie Farmers Direct franchisee Jim Ball delivers milk, bread and vegetables to homes.

By ALEXANDRA LASKIE

TWO years after facing fi- nancial ruin, former Aussie Farmers Direct delivery drivers are banding togeth- er to form their own fresh food delivery service selling produce directly from Vic- torian farmers.

Jim Ball and Annette Mitchell were among the 100 AFD franchisees who were left in the lurch in March 2018 when the 13- year-old online grocery company was placed into voluntary administration, leaving 260 people without jobs and many — including them — with significant debts.

“It was pretty devastat- ing for us. Apart from the value of the business, they owed us $60,000 when it fell over,” Mr Ball said.

But after paying back their debts, the couple re- alised they were still passionate about what they had been doing; linking farming families directly with their customers.

“I really believe in the business. And there’s a groundswell of people in Melbourne who want to support farming and we can be the conduit to support that,” Mr Ball said.

So he approached Cam- perdown Dairy, supplier of AFD’s dairy products, with the proposition of a re- birthed of the AFD model, and the company was keen.

Victorian Farmers Direct was launched about 18 months ago in a model that sees profits split between

four former AFD franchis- ees and Camperdown Dairy owner Australian Dairy Nutritionals Group, which is the overarching company owner.

Mr Ball said their reach was slowly covering Mel- bourne and Geelong, with 1000 customers split over the two cities.

Their product range cov- ers smallgoods from Ballar- at butcher Country Style Smallgoods, milk fresh that day from Camperdown Dairy, free-range Green Eggs from the Grampians, baked goods from Moorab- bin bakery Longhursts and dairy products from Schultz Organic Dairy and Jon- sey’s.

Mr Ball said their aim is to bring customers as close to the producers of their food as possible.

“The cows are milked for Camperdown Dairy that morning and it’s brought straight to our depot. You can’t get any fresher than what we’re doing,” he said.