Behind Byron Bay Cookie's sweet success

Orthopaedic surgeon-cum-chairman of Byron Bay Cookie Company, Gordon Slater, explains how he's managed to elbow in on Arnott's and crack the international market.

For decades, supermarkets have had a love affair with three great Australian brands: Arnott's, Kellogg's and Coca-Cola. In the first of our series on small operators taking on the giants, we showed how Caroline Creswell, of Carman's Fine Foods in Melbourne, had taken 20 per cent of the muesli market under the nose of cereal-making giant, Kellogg's (along with Nestl and Uncle Toby's).

Now this week, we look at a small operator who is taking on Arnott's: Gordon Slater, of Byron Bay Cookie Company. Slater says the big supermarkets are now regularly coming to him for different products as an alternative to the Arnott's offering; and while the Arnott's/supermarkets love affair is by no means over, the company no longer owns the shelves.

As you will see in the interview, though, Slater has to be right on his game because others are watching and seeking to duplicate his products. Accordingly, he needs to invest heavily in research. It is a lot easier, however, if the supermarkets are coming to you.

Slater knows, as a small operator, you can't afford to be totally dependent on the supermarket giants, so he exports 38 per cent of his biscuits and this, too, is a remarkable role reversal. In the 70s and 80s, Arnott's dreamed of being a major exporter and believed its' biscuits would take on the world. For whatever reason, they were wrong and had limited success: Arnott's was a particular Australian taste – a bit like Vegemite.

Clearly, Byron Bay Cookies have a more universal flavour, which, again, shows that it is possible to take on the giants and win.

Of course, Slater himself is also an orthopaedic surgeon, a profession he practices at the same time as being chairman of Byron Bay Cookie Company. Accordingly, he has learned to delegate and it shows that - with good ideas - sometimes a professional can promote a business without working on it 24 hours a day.

Meanwhile, there have been a lot of attempts to dislodge Coke, none of which have really succeeded, so that supermarket love affair continues unabated.