When Ben Woodhouse and Dustin Boughton set up their dairy ingredient company, Maxum Foods, little did they know just how successful it would become. Their “small” company, last year named Australia’s fastest growing company by BRW magazine with a 650% growth rate and ranked in the top 15 for the second year running, is projected to turn over about $50 million this financial year.

 

It’s a massive increase on the $200,000 revenue achieved in year one only four years ago. The company has since expanded vertically into Stockfeed manufacturing and last year made a foray into supplying Probiotics, buying out another small company in the process. And both it’s founding partners are still under 35.

 

Mr Woodhouse said even he was surprised at how far they had come – though was quick to stress there has been a whole lot of hard work (and many sleepless nights) involved.

 

It’s safe to say four years ago I never thought I’d end up at an awards ceremony in Melbourne (this October) hearing Maxum named as one of the finalists for the NAB agribusiness leaders of the year,” he said.

 

Mr Woodhouse and Mr Boughton met at a trading company in Brisbane, first saw an opportunity to go out on their own in early 2003, supplying bulk dairy ingredients to smaller food manufacturers.

 

“We could see the lack of service the smaller food manufacturers were receiving from the bigger dairy trading companies – a lot of these company were big operations focused on supplying full truckloads of product so a lot of the smaller, second tier operations were missing out on service,” Mr Woodhouse said.

 

In addition they began trading down-grade and feed-grade milk powders to intensive livestock operations such as piggeries as well as stockfeed manufacturers.

 

Within two years, they began formulating their own milk products for the stockfeed market, pitched at the top end of the market under the True Blue brand.

 

“We could see a gap in the market for a more premium-style or high quality range of milk products for the animal nutrition industry on the market,” Mr Woodhouse said.

 

It was in the pursuit of this market that they discovered Performance Probiotics – a US range of direct-fed microbial products designed to improve feed efficiency and animal health. “We actually started using a bovine calf powder and adding that to our True Blue calf milk replacer and the results we got from that, were astronomical.” Mr Woodhouse said.

 

So impressed were they that they bought out the Australian and New Zealand distributorship of the company.

 

Maxum is now supplying five Performance products to farmers across the country – chiefly as direct-fed microbial powder aimed at improving feed use and controlling pH in the rumen – and has set its sights on building a network of field representatives in key dairying areas in the next 12 to 18 months to grow the business and help producers get the most from the product.

 

The Performance range is what Mr Woodhouse describes as a “first to the future” product that’s popularity will only grow. “As markets and consumers become more focused on natural products, antibiotic-free products, HGP-free products, then that’s where Performance and other quality probiotic products are going to come into their own,” he said. “From that perspective it’s only going to be a massive opportunity for our company and our clients into the future.”

 

Maxum has registered a brand, Bio-friendly, which it hopes to licence to the end users to use as a marketing tool.

Signifying product produced without the daily use of antibiotics, Mr Woodhouse said he anticipated it being used to market food and beverage products at a premium price – and down the track earning a premium for the farmers supplying them.

Mr Woodhouse said it was no secret how ultra-competitive the global dairy market has become. “A lot of export markets can produce product a lot cheaper than we can but there’s a lot of premium markets out there that probably haven’t been touched by Australian products,” he said.

 

“I think if, as an industry, we can focus on those two ends by being smarter in how we produce products at former level – which is where Performance Probiotics can come in to help with production and save costs – and targeting higher end markets for Australian products, then I think we’re on a winner.”

 

By Sally White

 

 

Big things sometimes start from small beginnings. Maxum Performance Australia may be part of a bigger culture nowadays, but its new owners remain true to small business ethics.

 

Ben Woodhouse, 30; Dustin Boughton, 35 (Maxum Foods); and David Russell, 28, form the backbone of a young team which was a finalist in the recent NAB Agribusiness Leader of the Year awards. It came on the tail of Maxum Foods being named Australia’s fastest growing Australian company in 2006 by the Business Review Weekly.

 

The company has graduated from an annual $200,000 turnover in 2002-03 to $38 million in 2006-07. It is projected to turn over $50m – with a team of 15 staff – in 2007-08.

Maxum Foods today is a dairy-based company which manufactures and supplies a full range of ingredients – milk powders, butter and cheese to the Stockfeed and edible industry.

 

Its Stockfeed product range includes calf milk replacer, piglet milk replacer, lamb and kid replacer and other specialty milk products. Maxum Performance Australia was added earlier this year and it is the animal nutrition company which supplies a range of Direct Fed Microbial products – a blend of live host specific bacteria, digestive enzymes and yeast cultures – to a number of industries including its most prolific client, the dairy industry.

 

“We had no idea when we started that we would end up at this point,’ Mr. Woodhouse said. “There has been a lot of hard work and commitment along the way and while some people may have thought we’re a corporate culture, nothing could be further from the truth. We remain very focused on our one-on-one service with dairy farmers, because without that, nothing is going to work.

 

“We are currently looking for more nutritional sales staff to fill positions in key dairy regions around Australia so we can deliver this service promise, We appreciate our staff are key to our success and we will make sure the right people are chosen.

 

Mr. Woodhouse said the season had been tough on everyone and Performance offered dairy farmers an opportunity to boost feed efficiency and productivity. The three owners also have big plans and they include an exciting potential opportunity for dairy farmers.

 

We don’t believe that Australia maximizes its marketing opportunities in terms of the clean, green cliché that Australia and New Zealand have,” Mr. Woodhouse said. In the long term we’d like to work with farmers who work with Performance and ultimately collect their milk for our butter, cheese and milk powder marketing arm so that we can market a natural bio-friendly product and return a premium price to those farmers.

 

(Stock Journal - Agribusiness Page 13 - January 24th, 2008)

 

 

Maxum Foods is a Minnow in the dairy foods industry, which is dominated by global companies such as Fonterra and San Miguel. But that’s exactly how customers like it. The business, founded by Dustin Boughton and Ben Woodhouse in 2003, sells dairy products to food manufacturers and the farm sector from its base in Brisbane. It also targets smaller food manufacturers that are ignored by Australia’s biggest dairy companies.

 

By offering personalised service and working to reduce customer costs, Maxum has won more than 220 customers around Australia and more overseas. “It’s about being consultants rather than sales representatives,” Boughton says. “At the core of our business is service”.

 

Maxum has recorded average annual revenue growth of 650.1 per cent over the past three years, bringing in $10.7 million is 2005-06. About 10-15 per cent of sales come from exports.

 

Boughton and Woodhouse were working together at a Brisbane trading company when they decided to go out on their own. They collected $130,000 from family, friends, savings and the banks and went into business, working from home and getting to meetings in an old car or on a bicycle. It was not easy for a tiny company to get a foothold, but Woodhouse says customers were won over by Maxum’s ability to solve problems that the big dairy companies wouldn’t bother with.

 

When a small biscuit maker needs a delivery of bulk butter urgently, Maxum is able to respond immediately. Maxum will also work with customers on research and development, suggesting ways to use cheaper ingredients to reduce their input costs. “That’s where our service really adds value to their business,” Woodhouse says.

 

The business is split into three areas. The edible ingredients division supplies food companies with products such as skim milk powder, specialty dairy blends (most of which Maxum produces itself) and bulk dairy commodity products such as butter and cheese (which Maxum buys from other suppliers for distribution). The stockfeed division supplies large stockfeed companies and farms in the pig and calf industries. A third division makes nutritional supplements such as whey protein isolate and lactoferrin.

 

In the next 12 months, Maxum will relaunch its nutritional products under the brand Pure Balance and aims to sell them through fitness and sporting clubs and health food retailers. Nutritional products count for less than 10 per cent of Maxum’s total sales at present but Woodhouse and Boughton are confident of big things. “It’s got massive potential once we roll out a marketing campaign and get it out there,” Boughton says.

 

Maxum will also hire several new staff over the next year as the business expands. The partners believe there is plenty of room to grow because the sector is large and there are so many potential customers. “I still think we’re only scratching the surface,” Boughton says. “We don’t think of ourselves as a small business. We’ve got big goals.”