Australian greenthumbs will soon find an entirely new category of fertiliser at Bunnings, as Victorian agtech startup Bardee nears the launch of its innovative products in the national retailer.
Bardee, founded by Phoebe Gardner and Alex Arnold in 2019, breeds Black Soldier Fly larvae to break down industrial quantities of food waste.
The company harvests the larvae for use in protein-rich livestock and pet feeds.
The larvae also leave a nutrient-rich byproduct, known as frass or castings, which Bardee collects and processes into fertiliser.
Buoyed by interest in the circular economy, Bardee booked a $5 million funding round in 2019, backed by Blackbird Ventures, and investors including Culture Amp founder Didier Elzinga, and Who Gives A Crap co-founder and CEO Simon Griffiths.
Bardee has supplied its fertiliser directly to farmers for more than a year, and offers some garden products online, but will launch its Superfly fertiliser at Bunnings stores nationwide in the coming weeks.
Not only will the launch expose Bardee to a massive new market, Gardner says Superfly’s debut at Bunnings will mark a number of industry firsts.
“It’s not just a new company on Bunnings shelves,” Gardner told SmartCompany ahead of the national launch.
“There are quite a few firsts that are happening.
“Bardee is only three years old, and for any other fertiliser company to make it on shelf at Bunnings, I think the next youngest company was 18 years old before they got a product on shelves.
“So it’s a huge acceleration.”
It will also represent the first time a Black Soldier Fly fertiliser product is stocked at any national retailer globally, Gardner said.
And while landscapers and horticulturists are already familiar with worm castings as a soil improver, Bardee positions Superfly as a fully-fledged fertiliser.
The product will be priced comparably to existing fertilisers in terms of cost per application, she added.
Being stocked in a national retailer is a major goal for many startups, and Gardner says Bardee has spent nine months working with leaders in Bunnings’ garden care portfolio to perfect its retail offering.
That included efforts to homogenise its smell, texture and nutritional makeup: while Bardee’s existing farmer and nursery customers are comfortable with minor variations between batches, Bardee says retailer customers can expect a refined and consistent product.
The startup worked with Bunnings’ in-house team to ensure its branding stands out from the plethora of garden additives already available in-store.
Bardee also had to prove its product could withstand the rigours of nationwide distribution.
“We really wanted to show that we could supply them nationally with consistency and a high quality product that was always the same for every store and for every household across Australia,” Gardner said.
To do so, Bardee, based in Melbourne, shipped a pallet of its product to an outdoor warehouse in northern Queensland, where it sat outside in tropical conditions for a number of months.
“That was for us, in order to prove that no matter where we ship this product to, it will be the same everywhere in every store, and that it can withstand the rough and tumble of a national supply chain, and still deliver a high quality product and that it’s stable,” Gardner added.
As the consumer-facing side of Bardee expands, Gardner claims its direct waste collection efforts have also grown four times over in recent months.
The company has partnered with institutions including Melbourne’s wholesale vegetable markets, the Cabrini private hospital network, and the Trader House group of restaurants.
Bardee is now capable of processing up to 30 tonnes of food waste every day, Gardner said.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
