Just over a year after the first PopBox was sold in January 2023, the Toowoomba-based microwaveable popcorn brand has revealed it has landed a $5 million deal with Woolworths, with the boxes now popping into 1,000 Woolworths stores across the nation.
Approximately 1.75 million PopBoxes have been sold to date.
Marketed as ‘the good popcorn’, PopBox is palm oil-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan friendly, made from 100% Aussie-grown corn and comes in a recyclable box.
For the 2024 financial year, PopBox has made $6 million in estimated total retail sales through Woolworths and other stockists.
However, PopBox’s in-store sales in Woolworths accounted for approximately $5 million of that growth.
PopBox founder and CEO Mark Adamson told SmartCompany the deal with Woolworths represented a great partnering opportunity for a startup product like PopBox.
“It gave the product an ability to be recognised from direct sales and when people tried it, they really liked it. So it was a fantastic opportunity,” he says.
“We were sending product and samples to any retail distribution channel that we thought would be interested and we were fortunate that we got an opportunity to get a hearing with Woolworths and the category manager.”
PopBox was created by Toowoomba-based regional snack food manufacturer Scarecrow Foods, of which Adamson is also the CEO and founder.
The product flavours include Sea Salt, Sweet & Salty, Lite Butter Flavour, Butter Flavour, Mega Butter Flavour and Caramel Crunch.
Adamson says Mega Butter is the favourite among customers, however his personal favourite is Caramel Crunch.
“The vented box (is) cool, fun and convenient. The venting actually stops the popcorn from sweating during the cooking process, which means the end product that you pull out of the microwave is hot, fresh, tasty and doesn’t have any of that grimy residue.
“Besides that, I think it’s as healthy as we could make it.
“Best of all, it’s Australian and made with Australian popcorn and it’s almost fully recyclable.”
As well as being in 1,000 Woolworths and Woolworths Metro stores nationally, PopBox is ranged by up to 800 independent stockists through their distributor routes.
The business has between 15 and 20 employees, including approximately five casual staff members.
Adamson describes the growth rate of the business as “very steep and very fast”.
“I think it’s largely because the people who try the product just love it, love the box and see the good value,” he says.
“It’s fun and it’s Australian. It virtually sells itself.”
As for the future of the brand, Adamson says the business has its eye on the Australian and New Zealand markets for the moment.
“We’ve still got plenty of scope for the Australian market in the short term. So for the next 12 months, we’ll be certainly focusing on that,” he says.
“I can see the product making its way to New Zealand, probably hopefully within that timeframe as well. There’s a good opportunity for the New Zealand market.”
Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on LinkedIn.
