Un-chard-ed
territory.
Co-Founder & Equity Partner | Capital Raising - Crowdfunding
Editorial Management | Brand development
Media Strategy | Partnerships
With supply chain and climate issues conspiring to push the price of fruit and vegetable soaring, a sad fact is that 25 percent of all produce never leaves Australian farms because it doesn’t meet the strict ‘beauty guidelines’ of Aussie supermarkets.
While supermarkets continue to reject fruit and veg because of how it looks, rescuing imperfect food became one man’s mission (and someone else’s soup, or stir-fry, or salad, or cake…).
Richard Tourino launched Good & Fugly in 2020 as a brand new type of social enterprise to collect and sell, direct to consumers, food that would otherwise rot in fields or go to waste.
Rich had been on the ground at the beginning of GoGet (their seventh employee) and saw the need for a social enterprise to drive sustainable change in a broken supply chain.
Two peas in a pod, since day zero
Andiron has been Good & Fugly’s co-founding equity partner since day zero. Creating a cultural shift, or movement, has always been part of the Andiron methodology. With values that are closely aligned, working alongside Rich, Andiron has been a significant equity partner for Good & Fugly, supporting crowd funding and capital raising projects.
A hot potato issue
Food waste, both in harvesting and the kitchen, is undoubtedly a hot potato issue. With consumers more conscientious about what food they buy and use, their environmental impact and the cost of their groceries, it was no surprise when Good & Fugly quickly gained traction.
In their first two years, Good & Fugly delivered more than 200,000kg of fruit and vegetables and gathered over 2,000 regular consumer subscribers across metro areas of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Richard has become a vocal and visible critic of mass agricultural waste and a sought after commentator (no pun intended this time) on sustainability. Richard’s passion and very real and urgent purpose, are natural magnets for media when the consumer is turning their focus towards innovations in sustainability. From The Australian to The Farmer Magazine, Smart Company to The Sydney Morning Herald, Andiron has worked with Richard to ensure he is one of the go-to authorities in the space.
Celebrating the beauty in imperfection
With a name like Good & Fugly, building a young, consumer-facing brand means you can have some fun too. Good & Fugly launched Australia’s Fugliest fruit and veg competition as a hunt for the most misshapen and ugliest fruit and vegetables, with the prize of a year’s worth of fresh produce. The competition outperformed all expectations, driving significant social media reach, amplification of user generated content across large and micro influencer channels, along with significant media attention.
Perfectly pear-ed
As an equity partner, Andiron has a singular relationship with Good & Fugly, distinct from its other collaborations. But the biggest thing it has in common with all of our partner organisations is our profound desire to advance outcomes as a profitable social enterprise with purpose and disruptive impact.
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