Cookie crumbles well in Byron

From its modest beginnings on an old farmhouse stove in 1990, the Byron Bay Cookie Company has become an international brand, exporting to 20 countries and employing 100 people in Australia and another 100 indirectly through its distribution partners in Britain.

The home-grown cookies, originally baked by Maggi Miles and Gary Lines for the local market in the coastal town of Byron Bay under the name of Pickles, Pies and Petticoats, soon became a staple at local cafes. As their popularity grew, the cookies made their way to the shelves of prestigious national and international stores such as David Jones, Selfridges and Harrods.

It was about eight years ago that the company chose to capitalise on the gap for gourmet cookies in Britain.

"The cafe market was just taking off in the UK, so we decided to get into the market early," says Gordon Slater, who joined the company in 2002 and took over as chairman four years ago. "It was also economical as the exchange rate then was $3 to a pound."

The Byron Bay Cookie Company has maintained 17 per cent year-on-year growth and 32 per cent growth in offshore sales in 2009-10.

It boasts a clientele of 9000 independent cafes and delis in Australia and worldwide, including 500 cafes in inner-city London. The products are also available on amazon.com and since the company revamped its website in January, online sales have increased by 50 per cent in Australia.

Slater, a once-enterprising child who would sell his family's backyard chokos for 1? each, doesn't shy away from taking risks and as the global financial crisis gripped world markets, launched Byron Bay Cookie products in the US.

"Once we had decided, 'We will do it', we examined the cost base and appointed a person who set up a home office and outsourced warehousing," says Slater, who is also a practising orthopaedic surgeon. "We kept it skinny but aggressively moved with distribution throughout the US and Canada."

He ranks quality as the key to growth. "We are very emotional about our product, which we have painstakingly perfected over 20 years," he says. "We have consistently maintained top quality while continuously introducing new flavours and improving older ones with better ingredients.

"It is the real, fresh flavour of chocolate and fruit that sets our products apart as we do not use preservatives."

While the cookies, which sell for between $2 and $3.50 each, are at the indulgent end of the market, they are not the most expensive.

Recently, the company has added three more brands, Luken & May biscuits, Falwasser crispbreads and Byron Bay Bakehouse, to its portfolio.

The company has released a special-edition rocky road cookie to celebrate its 20th birthday this year.

While creating sweet delights, the company aims to leave a minimum carbon footprint. The award-winning products, which include gluten-free, dairy-free and reduced-fat ranges, are largely made from local ingredients and packaged in biodegradable plastic. Staff are given incentives for riding a bicycle to work.

"In the UK, food miles, which requires food produce to be locally sourced otherwise some companies can't deal with you, is big," Slater says. "It is for this very reason we have some of the product lines made under licence in Manchester. It was a huge decision to make as I had liked the fact that we were producing everything in Australia and exporting it."

Slater still finds human resources the greatest challenge in any small business. "If you have smart, motivated people and you don't have to watch over their shoulder then you can progress quite rapidly," he says. "But if you don't get that right, you can't get anywhere no matter how good your product is. We need people with a very good palate for flavour and good managerial skills."

Slater says in the coming years the company will expand the product range to bars, savoury and grocery lines, and focus on the US market. It will also look for partners to market products in China and India.

"I have faith in the product, and the vision to expand and keep challenging the boundaries," Slater says.