In this new series Food & Drink Business revisits its Rising Star alumni. Our regular Rising Star feature in the print magazine profiles founders and their young companies, selected for innovation, creativity, tenacity, and potential.
This week, we catch up with sugar free drinks brand Nexba’s co-founder Troy Douglas.
Where is the company today?
Drew (Bilbe) and I founded the company 13 years ago and we are more energised that we’ve ever been about where we’re heading.
Since we launched, Nexba has removed five billion grams of sugar from Aussie diets. We have also patented our blended natural sweetener of stevia and erythritol called Goodsweet, which took six years to perfect.
We recently launched our Crafted Soda range and have also announced the establishment of Goodness Global Group, which will be the parent company, providing a platform for growth and expansion in Australia and overseas.
Our core products are still very much the ones we started with kombucha and soft drinks, and the new business structure will allow us to stay super focused on Nexba being a functional better-for-you soft drink brand.
Everything we develop is focused on the same goal we started with; natural, sugar free, and delicious.
Australia is still our hero home market and one of the biggest opportunities for us. In FY23 we had $23.3 million in net sales in Woolworths and Coles. We view it as our Asia Pacific division, with planning looking at where we’re heading over the next five years. We’re currently in South Korea and planning our launch into New Zealand.
And our other focus is on the UK and mainland Europe. In the UK we’re one of the leading kombucha brands with 31.4 per cent of the total retail kombucha category. We are now expanding into Europe and will be in 10 European countries by the end of the year.
In August, our manufacturing facilities in the UK and Poland will come online, allowing us to manufacture locally over there. It really sets us up to be able to scale more efficiently in that region.
For Goodness Global Group, continuing to scale in existing markets, opening in new ones, developing new products, and our role as a supplier with Goodsweet can be a reality.
What have been the high points?
This final capital raise and having Pat Cummins come onboard as a shareholder and brand ambassador is definitely a high point.
We were named on this year’s The Australian Financial Review’s Fast Global Top 50 with revenue growth at 129 per cent.
But the highest point is the feedback we get from customers, people who have diabetes and others who are our brand loyalists – that energises us more than any other recognition or accolade, it tells us we’re on the right path.
And establishing Goodness Global Group because it puts us in a better position to market Goodsweet, the natural sweetener we have developed and patented. We always want to be at the forefront of food tech innovation, and Goodsweet has been 12 years in the making.
It will open entire new markets for us as well. We’re running a consumer trial with The Cheesecake Shop now with a Black Forest Torte made with Goodsweet.
We see Nexba as large consumer proof point for Goodsweet, and Goodness Global Group is giving us the platform to scale that in a bigger way. If a company is looking to manufacture a product with a natural sweetener, we will be able to do that.
What have been the challenges?
It’s been a big three-four years for the industry. Before then the focus, particularly by investors, was all about high growth, but if you’re wanting to make an impact, then it has to be about how do you control your destiny.
Is there anything you would have done differently?
I’m a big believer in not looking backwards, but I think it is important in life to lean into pain early, because it allows you to build a better outcome.
There’s nothing we would do differently. We’re excited about having expanded the business from Nexba as a solo brand to now being Goodness Group Global and elevating our ability to deliver more brands and more innovation to the market faster.
Current goals?
We’re in our last series B capital raise before our whole group will move into being a positive EBITDA profitable business. It will allow us to invest regionally, set up local and regional manufacturing, and bring new brands to market over the next 12 months.
In the Australian market there is a big opportunity for us to expand distribution outside of the grocery channel and develop new brands, while in the UK and Europe, our focus is on continuing to add new markets.
