Accelerator team lands Costco!
Since they met 10 years ago, Liza and James have had a bunch of business ideas. Like spaghetti to a wall, they threw, and threw, until one stuck. Now married with two kids, the Barbours have found a sweet spot: the partnership of American James’ love of pickles with dietician Liza’s healthy know-how.
Dillicous started selling their gourmet range of pickles at farmers’ markets in late 2018. By mid-2019, they had secured a partnership with the largest cheese and specialty foods distributor in Australia to supply retail and foodservice pickles, nationwide.
Their pickles are now stocked in over 200 retail outlets and over 150 cafes, pubs, and restaurants in Australia. Dillicious recently partnered with Fun Lab Group that have 40 outlets nation-wide.
Based in Moorabbin, the team of 8 is now working hard at getting their product ready to launch into all 12 Costco stores across Australia.
Liza is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian, currently completing her PhD in Sustainable Food Systems and has been employed as a lecturer at Monash University since 2009. James is an American that has loved dill pickles since… forever. He has also spent the last 10 years working in sales roles across fresh produce and retail (Aussie Farmers Direct, Coles).
Why are Dillicious pickles unique in the market?
Our major point of difference is that our pickles are super healthy, with no added sugar. We use a local apple cider vinegar in our brine which adds natural sweetness and our customers love the flavour.
Congratulations on your recent win with Costco. How are you feeling?
Thank you! We’re thrilled to have landed Costco — obviously because of their size — but they are a major US brand so there’s a synergy with our American-style pickles. We’re super grateful to our distributor (Gourmet Providores) who created the opportunity.
What do you hope to gain from The Generator’s Accelerator program?
Support to incorporate technology into overseeing and reporting on our business, mechanising our operations, and building out our infrastructures (namely equipment and our facility). We’re really looking forward to learning how to align our business objectives and aspirations. And, while we’re not seeking investment, we want to understand valuations and how to determine investments as we continue to grow.
What insights have you gained during The Accelerator so far?
The Generator’s Accelerator program has been really useful in bringing to light some of our gaps, that we may not have otherwise seen. We’ve also learned how crucial mindfulness, and our overall ‘wellness’, is to the future success of our business.
You have a young family (pictured below); how have you learned to manage work-life balance?
Lists. We have a:
- Pickle list
- Homelife list
- Family-life list
- Non-pickle, work-life list
It helps that our kids are awesome, too. They love that we’re all a big team ‘making and selling pickles’. We try to involve them in as many steps of the way as possible. They love coming to markets with us (in non-COVID times).
What’s next for Dillicious?
We’re excited to streamline our systems, productions, and costs, to set ourselves up for dramatic growth. We’re going to be working on a lot of new product development in the last part of 2020 as well as increasing production capacity to accommodate our growing list of retail and foodservice partners.
Dillicious pickles come in sweet, spicy and garlic and you can buy them here.
