Beechworth Honey is one of Australia's iconic brands; a national and international success story with 120 years of history. With over four generations of knowledge of Australian honey, uncompromising quality standards and a fairness to all along the supply chain, Beechworth Honey prides itself on its unequalled passion for producing only 100% Australian honey. This passion can be seen at Beechworth Honey Experience, a concept store with Australia’s largest range of Beechworth Honey specialty products.
Jodie Goldsworthy, Director, shares her insights on running a successful business, the importance of being a member of NSW Business Chamber and what keeps her awake at night…
What has made your business so successful?
Our marketing and sales plans and strategies have been created with enough flexibility to take into account different market responses and conditions, and are fine-tuned accordingly. Tough times can happen at any time for a business, and when they do, we regard it as needing a different market response which requires perhaps more creativity, and yet another opportunity to put ourselves in our customers’ shoes - which we now do constantly anyway.
I believe sound results come from closely monitoring what you’re doing all the time and making the most of innovative opportunities as they arise; or creating them if they don’t. And we are constantly looking for innovative ways to build greater brand awareness.
Also, we are expanding into a range of different market channels, including the tourism industry, as part of a longer term strategy. We are also focusing on online sales to boost sales opportunities and working towards the expansion of our premium products into higher end and export segments.
Opening
Beechworth Honey Experience and entering the tourism market has helped our business grow. Word of mouth marketing from our customers who have received a memorable experience has provided greater depth of understanding of our brand and our products by our customers. This has also lead to much publicity as a result of creating a unique customer experience.
Today, more so than ever I believe that customers are more carefully assessing the value of products. They have always done this, but I believe their focus on value is particularly important in the current economic climate. To address this, we have intentionally developed different market segments and a range of different products to cater for a range of different demographics, and a spread of market channels and customers.
Do you have any advice for other members based on your experiences and success?
Always look long term. Don’t be afraid to make a tough decision, even if it seems like a crazy financial decision, if you think it’s best for the customers in the long term. Sometimes it’s easy to take shortcuts but they’re just not worth it in the long run. During the ongoing droughts and shortages of Australian honey, we could have been tempted to use imported honey instead of Australian honey but quality is just too important to us. Sticking with 100% Australian honey….always! This has become one of our defining attributes and has positioned our product and company well to grow into the future. And we are always striving to do things better! And importantly: focus in on your communication with your customers, look for more positive ways to promote your product and connect with your customers.
How has membership with NSW Business Chamber helped your business?
We find our membership with NSW Business Chamber invaluable for a number of reasons.
We always read the Chamber’s magazine Business Connect because it enables us to keep up to date with current business issues. The magazine is usually a good read with articles which help improve our business knowledge, providing us with ideas and giving us a feeling of being ‘connected’, and it’s a good way of gaining business support and business information from the Chamber.
Whenever we can, we attend local networking and information events and these have proved useful in increasing our business knowledge and building contacts.
And we also catch up every so often with our local NSW Business Chamber representative as we find it useful to bounce things off him.
What recent business achievements, successes or wins have helped grow your business or raised your profile?
Beechworth Honey has won numerous prestigious awards. Over the years, entering these awards has been of huge benefit to our business. Firstly, the process of entering offers the opportunity to rigorously assess many key factors which assist in delivering good products and good service and leads to successful business.
Secondly, if you’re lucky enough to win, this creates an external stamp of approval that what you’re doing is effective and this leads to the opportunity to showcase this success through numerous publicity opportunities. Winning also assists in building the business and product profile and links the business into really useful networks.
Do you have any business concerns that are keeping you awake at night?
Of concern to us is the recent steep increase in honey bee colony losses globally. This not only an issue for us as honey manufacturers, but for food production generally. About one-third of global food production is to some extent dependent on pollination by the honey bee. This dependence is growing as the production of pollination-requiring crops is increasing rapidly and the role of wild pollinators is shrinking. Pollination-dependent crops represent a large proportion of the average diet. The inherent economic impact of declining bee colonies is substantial and I am concerned at the lack of understanding of policy makers of the link between bees and food security.
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