Smart50 rank: 10
Revenue: $2,871,000
Growth: 136.74%
Founders: Dwayne Martens, 26
Head Office: New South Wales
Employees: 5
Industry: Wholesale trade
Website: www.purpleberry.com.au
The Queensland floods were a nightmare for hundreds of businesses, but Amazonia founder Dwayne Martens suffered one of the worst fates imaginable– he lost $1 million worth of merchandise, with no insurance to cover it.
“My entire inventory was not insured for ‘flooding’ that does not come through the roof,” he says. “My inventory warehouses were all flooded.”
Since then the company has moved warehouses and added additional protective. But this didn’t stop the initial financial stress.
“Cashflow was tight for the next few months,” he says. “But we were not locked into any advertising agreements, so we were able to draw back on a few advertising costs to see us through.”
Most entrepreneurs have a clear goal when they enter the business world. Martens had no idea what he wanted to do - only a passion to create a successful venture.
Amazonia began when he bought a share in one business from a friend who imported the Acai berry, a popular food from Brazil. Researching the product, Martens found there was more opportunity than his previous strategy of operating a portable juice bar – wholesaling provided scope for larger profits.
Since then the business has expanded into new products including supplements, and wholesaling to supermarkets, juice bars and cafes. Growth has exploded, with revenue now at $2.8 million after three years.
The consumer shift towards healthy foods and supplements has provided the business with ample opportunity to expand, with Martens saying the growing size of health food sections is a “prime example of a growing health consciousness in society”.
With such rapid growth, Martens says the company needs to remain nimble with talented staff members. As a result, he says he has “hired and fired very frequently” to produce the best team.
“Everyone is the best at what they do. Our national manager of food service, for example, had pre-existing relationships with more than 60 key accounts nationally in the juice bar sector. Our product was a shoe in.”
“Nothing beats experienced personnel.”
The business is experiencing a number of growing pains, Martens says, particularly in systems and procedures needed to track marketing and sales at a store-based level. “Financial planning is what we really need to work on to measure our growth and know when to invest and when to slow down.”
But overall Martens says he is set for the future, noting that he never makes rash decisions based on personal attachments – and he warns other entrepeneurs to follow his example.
“Do the research, be calm and follow your intuition. Learn from every mistake, if you sit around being sad about things you’re going nowhere – the Brisbane floods taught me that lesson.”
