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A Feast of Meats

Richard Gunner’s Feast Fine Foods has shown that consumers will queue up for branded meat products.

Beef and vegetablesMeat and wine have a long history of going together so it’s fitting that Richard Gunner’s father’s experience in the wine industry influenced Richard’s approach to his meat business, Feast Fine Foods.

‘I saw the wine industry as a model for value-adding beyond the farm gate, and branding,’ he said from his Meningie property, located adjacent to South Australia’s picturesque Limestone Coast region at the bottom of Australia’s Murray Darling Basin.

The other main influence on Richard’s 2001 decision to develop a branded meat business was the realisation that what he was producing was consistently better than products he found in retail outlets.

‘We thought the consumer would think so, too,’ he said, adding that selling branded products meant he was no longer a ‘pawn’ for the major supermarkets. ‘You have no control and the goalposts move every six months. Now I can see why they move and can get in front of the curve.’

Feast Fine Foods gathers together the finest products from Richard’s own farms, as well as many others from around the region, and sells them under distinct brands. There’s Pure Suffolk Lamb, Maylands Farm Lamb, Berkshire Free-range Pork and Patchawarra Free-range Beef, among many others.

‘Most other businesses will say we have some loins in the fridge, whereas we say we have four or five brands of loin,’ Richard said. ‘Consumers love brands and we didn’t see any reason for it to be different with meat. We’ve had to do things the hard way, trying to prove to people that brands and differentiation in meats could work, but we’ve convinced buyers now that they can.’

The company, which has its distribution base in Adelaide, sells its products locally and into Sydney; retail and wholesale at home and food service only to Sydney.

Richard said that the business was ‘ticking along well.’

‘We’ve had 30-40 per cent year-on-year growth and we’re more than happy to invest now in what we’re doing,’ he said, adding that the company’s turnover was now $10 million per year. ‘But it’s a complex business; you never feel like you have everything worked out.’

Despite a range that includes lamb, beef, poultry, veal, game and smallgoods, Richard is always trying to develop his lines to keep consumers satisfied.

‘We did a research project with the University of Adelaide, an experiment to see if we could get a different taste in lamb,’

he said, adding that lamb were fed garlic, rosemary and citrus among other exotic feeds. ‘We are working towards a product that we hope to launch next year that will deliver a different lamb eating experience.’