Achievements in 2011

Celebrating 12 Months of Milestones

It's been a busy 12 months at Aussie Farmers Direct, a 100% Australian home delivery food business and Australia's fastest growing franchise (BRW 2011 Fast Franchises). Here is a taste of the top 12 milestones we've celebrated these past 12 months.

1. We rebuilt our Queensland depot after it was lost to floods

On Wednesday 12 January 2011, we lost our primary distribution depot to the Queensland floods. Our suppliers, franchisees, and their family, friends and neighbours, banded together to rebuild their depot just three months later.

2. We started production at Aussie Farmers Dairy

In February 2011 milk started flowing from Aussie Farmers Dairy - our brand new, state of the art dairy facility in Australia's dairy heartland. Since February, we've produced almost 8 million litres of locally sourced milk (enough to fill more than three Olympic swimming pools!), which is delivered to customers in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory with plans to continue expanding into Queensland.

3. We sold 1 million navel oranges in support of navel orange growers

The high Australian dollar and fierce competition from international competitors left our navel orange farmers with a bumper crop of fruit they could not sell. To help out, we encouraged our customers to support our farmers by purchasing a special 3kg navel orange bag for just $2.99. In just four months, we managed to sell a whopping 1 million navel oranges - weighing in at almost 170 tonnes!

4. We went organic

We were inundated with requests from our customers about supplying an organic produce range. Following a successful trial in Victoria, we introduced an organic fruit and vegetable range into our other states, as well as organic milk in Queensland and South Australia.

5. We donated $256,090 through Aussie Farmers Foundation

Aussie Farmers Foundation, which supports rural and regional communities, awarded $256,090 to eight charitable organisations across Australia in its first year of grants, made possible by the donations of Aussie Farmers Direct customers.

6. We won the BRW 2011 Fast Franchises award for the second consecutive year

We we're thrilled to be announced winners of the BRW Fast Franchises award for the second year in a row. Aussie Farmers Direct is now the only company in the history of the BRW Fast Franchises award to take the number one spot for two consecutive years.

7. We exceeded the 100,000 customer milestone

We hit an important milestone earlier this year, exceeding 100,000 happy customers! Since September, our milkmen and milkladies have delivered products to almost 120,000 customers in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.

8. We joined Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Linkedin

We've ventured into the social media landscape with the launch of our own Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Linkedin pages. We now have over 17,000 Facebook fans and our social media channels are proving to be valuable tools for communicating with, and listening to, our customers.

9. We exceeded 200 franchise rounds

Our family of milkos continues to grow - we now have 207 franchise rounds operated by 162 franchisees throughout Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong, Sydney, Newcastle, Central Coast, Wollongong, Canberra, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth.

10. We launched Aussie Farmers Direct Magazine

We launched the first issue of our customer magazine, Aussie Farmers Direct Magazine, which debuted with a circulation of 132,000. The magazine features profiles on Australian producers, food tips and recipes from the likes of Ben O'Donoghue and Adrian Richardson, and interviews with inspirational people including Stephanie Alexander and Jon Dee.

11. We delivered 1.6 million boxes of fruit and vegetables

Since January 2011, we've delivered approximately 1.6million boxes of fruit and vegetables which is approximately 56 million pieces of fruit and vegetables.

12. We've delivered 500,000 loaves of bread and 2,300,000 litres of milk

In 2011, our 14 Perth milkos delivered our 500,000th loaf of bread and 2,300,000th litre of milk to more than 13,000 customers in Western Australia.