Australians care deeply about the provenance of the produce they are consuming and are rapidly ditching sugary and artificially sweetened drinks in favour of healthier options.
These are two of the key insights gained by British entrepreneur Alex Wright since bringing his range of naturally infused sparkling water Down Under in 2021.
Together with business partner Jack Scott, Wright founded Dash Water in the UK in 2017, driven by a mission to combat food wastage. Dash Water is infused with ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables, or fresh produce with imperfections that would not normally make it to the supermarket shelf.
In the space of five years, the duo have carved out a leading position in the UK, earned a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Europe, and expanded internationally to more than 10 markets. To date, the company has raised £10.8 million in venture capital, according to The Grocer.
Australia has emerged as a key part of this growing empire, and now serves as the brand’s hub in the Asia Pacific region. Dash Water began producing its products in Australia in early 2022 — the first time the company had done so outside of the UK — and these drinks, made from locally sourced spring water, fruit and recyclable cans, are now also distributed to Singapore, with New Zealand to follow soon.
Dash Water sold around 1 million cans of its naturally flavoured, sugar-free drinks in Australia in 2021, out of more than 10 million sold globally, and Wright tells SmartCompany the Australian sales figure for 2022 was “more than double” the 2021 figure.
“We smashed that,” he said with a laugh, when I referred to his co-founder’s prediction from January 2022 that Dash would sell 2 million cans in Australia in 2022.
These sales have been fuelled by Dash’s growing distribution across the country; in early 2022, the company’s five flavours were available from 1500 outlets, including 800 independent retailers and 700 Woolworths stores. Now, Dash has 3000 stockists, having secured a spot on the shelves at Coles stores across the country and added 200 more independent retailers via the IGA network.
Speaking exclusively to SmartCompany during a recent visit to Melbourne, Wright describes the company’s last 12 months in Australia as a “remarkable journey”.
He says the B Corp-certified company did not want to export its drinks from the UK to Australia because of the environmental impact, and so undertook to set up local production and distribution on the other side of the world, and during a global pandemic.
After four months of selling via Woolworths, Dash was named runner up as one of the supermarket giant’s sustainable partners of the year, reinforcing this decision.
The partnerships have come from further afield too. When I spoke to Wright, he was preparing to attend the opening night of the Melbourne Fashion Festival, as Dash Water is the official water partner for this year’s festival. This is the second year running that Dash has partnered with the event after San Pellegrino held the position for many years, and the company is expected to give away some 20,000 samples to fashion fans next month.
Dash’s “sustainability credentials” were a key factor in securing the partnerships, says Wright, as well as the brand’s bright, colourful aesthetics.
“Looking back at the pictures from Melbourne Fashion Festival last year, everybody on the catwalk was enjoying a can of Dash; it was brilliant. So it’s a great way to associate ourselves with an amazing festival that’s local, and also delivers great-tasting drinks.”
When Dash launched in Australia, it tested the waters (pardon the pun) with single cans, which lend themselves to quick service restaurants and coffee shops, explains Wright. After seeing traction with those, the company rolled out multi-packs, which have suited their grocery customers.
The next stage of growth for its Australian-specific sales will be online, says Wright, primarily via Amazon.
“Online for our UK business is very, very big; in the UK, 62% of our total sales are online. So we are looking to really develop the online space in Australia.”
And the market conditions are trending in the company’s favour.
“The category, which is infused sparkling water, is absolutely booming in Australia,” said Wright.
“Consumers are really moving away from sugary and artificially sweetened drinks now. Whereas in the past, sugar was the enemy, artificial sweeteners are now the enemy as well.
“I guess the point of difference that Dash has that makes it truly unique is the genuine mission that we have at Dash, which is exclusively infusing Australian-grown wonky fruit into Australian spring water … and that separates us from the rest of the category.”
Australians are passionate about “localisation”, says Wright and this is something the founders have come to love about local consumers.
“The quality of food in Australia is top class, it’s absolutely fantastic. So that’s something that I found the Australian public talk about very regularly, and quite rightly so with the quality of produce that Australia produces,” he said.
There is considerable work to be done, however, to reduce the amount of food waste across the country, says Wright, some of which stems from the “friction” caused by different food recycling methods and transportation between the various states and territories.
“One thing I’ve learnt a lot about in Australia is the way the local state governments are set up. It’s very different to the UK’s unicameral system, and there are a lot of differences between states in terms of operational legislation.”
To this end, Dash Water has signed up to the Australian Food Pact, alongside the likes of Coles, Woolworths and Yume, to work towards halving the country’s food waste by 2030, and has forged a partnership with Woolworths and OzHarvest to make donations for every multipack of Dash Water sold via the supermarket chain.
These kinds of partnerships allow Dash to build closer relationships with its retail partners, minimising food waste in their supply chains, while also raising awareness about food waste more broadly in a country that is fast becoming key to the company’s future success.
News Editor
Prior to joining SmartCompany, Eloise was news editor at Books+Publishing, the trade press for the Australian book industry. Eloise has degrees in media and communications, marketing and business management, and political science. You can follow her on Twitter at @ellykeating.
