Eastcoast Beverages is a family business based in Kulnura, north of Sydney, which has been around for 60 years. The company grows citrus fruit, juices and bottles on site and supplies its range of 40 different juice blends to Woolworth's, Coles and independent retailers across the Eastern seaboard.
Eastcoast Marketing Director Samuel J Lentini explains, 'We really do go the extra mile to produce great tasting fruit that results in great tasting juice, and we control the entire bottling process to make sure that the juice is delicious, nutritious and preservative free", he said. Affectionately known as 'Juice Boy' as a kid, Lentini's entrepreneurial spirit developed at an early age. He was reprimanded by the school principal for taking sales away from the canteen by selling his family's orange juice out of his backpack. Lentini solved this problem by employing his friends to be 'runners', who would take the juice from his schoolbag and on-sell it to their classmates for a commission, grossing around $500 a week in pocket money.
Eastcoast now grows 150 acres of fruit on site as well as sourcing fruit from local growers. "We have planted an additional 5000 lemon trees over the last year and intend to expand our orange production. There is a shortage in the orange juice market due to citrus greening in Brazil and Florida, so hopefully we can fill some of the gap in Australia and even overseas. Hospitality in Australia have been buying more bottled, fresh juices to keep costs down and we have seen a 20% YOY growth due to this increased demand and have reinvested more than $4 Million into facility upgrades to meet this growing demand."
Recent facility upgrades allow Eastcoast to double the bottling speed of their 2-liter bottles to 120 per minute (up from 60 BPM) and their 4-liter bottles to 45 per minute (up from 15 BPM). These advancements are supported by new technologies, including high-speed conveyors, bottle inverters, in-line cleaning systems, and a robotic palletizer, which has reduced manual handling and improved operational efficiency.
Sustainability is very important to Samuel and the company takes a circular approach to farming where the factory rinse down water is used to irrigate the orchard, the citrus peel is fed to local cattle, pulp is used by yogurt companies to flavour its products, and organic fertilisers work to prioritise soil health. "We aim to be carbon neutral by 2030 and Australia's most sustainable juice company."
For more information:
Georgia Dawes
[email protected]
www.eastcoastbeverages.com.au