Proudly sponsored story about our bottled passion

Typically, I use this platform to write gentle self depreciating humour, and I try to be reasonably honest with our joys and challenges. Today I am going for shameless self promotion. I apologise, but we are on a journey to build a legacy business of which our family, friends and local community can be proud. 

An earlier mentor told me “never be embarrassed to ask for help and support, there is nothing surer than if you don’t ask, you don’t get.”.

Yes, our chocolate milk has disappeared from the shelves from the local Coles store but it is for the long-term greater good as we are in transition from direct supply to the Swan Hill store to supplying 40 Coles stores-so there is just a little understandable lag while the new system is set up and product is delivered from the Coles Melbourne distribution centre back to Swan Hill.

Our Belgian Chocolate + Milk will be found across the state in stores in towns such as Myrtleford, Wodonga, Apollo Bay, Warrnambool, Ballarat and more, so if you happen to spot one at a Coles store in regional Victoria, feel free to show us you care by buying one (I mean, they are not terrible so it shouldn’t be too big of a burden to support us).

Out of the 40 stores there are only two towns where we currently have a presence so from a brand awareness point of view it’s a great opportunity for us. 

Please continue to also support our loyal regular stockists- they truly have been, and continue to be, amazing.

It feels like we have lifted a gear in the past three months, we are now buying bulk chocolate by the pallet. At the same time our chocolate milk orders to Harris Farm Market stores in NSW have nearly doubled. 

We are in fact out of space in our little milk enhancement centre. Realistically we urgently need a milk separator so we can do a light milk, cream and butter as well as a higher capacity homogeniser, our own laboratory, a bottle labeller for the chocolate milk, a bigger yoghurt incubator, but most importantly floor space and cool room capacity.

I don’t want to sound needy, but this is a capital hungry business, and the investment always comes well before the hopeful return, so hopefully we will be able to (probably afford) just one of the essential items I listed. 

Three years ago when we first bottled milk, we took our product into Swan Hill Wholesalers in a little cool-room trailer that was hand stacked and would battle to handle transport 500 kgs or half a pallet. 

Last week on one of our three delivery trips, we had to juggle to fit everything in our eight-pallet delivery truck. In effect we are transitioning from a micro business to a small business. We know the community is behind us, but don’t be afraid to show it by drinking chocolate milk.