Botanica is a revolutionary hand-crafted, cold-pressed green juice company created in 2013 by Richard Magney and Nadia Watson. These two passionate healthy foodies both used to work in finance and are now doing their bit to help create a healthier Australia.
Q. What do you love about being a small business owner in Australia?
Botanica is a premium cold pressed juice manufacturer. We focus on using high quality ingredients which we source from the most sustainable farms in Australia. Our business started three and a half years ago when Nadia and I were working in financial services and were inspired to begin a new experience building a business that offered people fresh, healthy, tasty food and beverages. Like every small business, we divested our assets and pooled our money then plotted a short, medium and long term plan for the business.
Thankfully that decision was well-timed as increasingly we’ve seen the growth of a strong movement among consumers – and in some instances, big corporations – who are keen to support small, local businesses and help them thrive. Qantas Business Rewards is a perfect example of how a large corporation like Qantas is offering small businesses, like Botanica, a hand up by helping us save on costs and reap benefits from our business spend.
Botanica use high quality ingredients sourced from Australian sustainable farms
Q. Why did you join the Qantas Business Rewards program?
We were excited to join the Qantas Business Rewards program as soon as we heard about it as we already use many of the partners to help run our business. These partners include Qantas, Caltex, Staples and Qantas Freight to name a few, so we jumped at the opportunity to earn Qantas Points for each dollar our business spends with these companies. That’s why becoming a member of Qantas Business Rewards was a no-brainer for us.
Coming from a corporate finance background and taking the big step to set up our own business, we needed to put all the skills we’d learned over the years into making our new venture profitable. So, it’s important for us to look for opportunities to leverage any costs of running a business with additional benefits that come at no extra cost.
The great part is we’re doubling up on the points we earn on each flight as both a business and individual Frequent Flyer member and this also applies when our staff fly with Qantas too. All those points help to keep our travel costs down as we plough the points back into flights and upgrades.
“We are at the markets at 3am each morning”
Q. How has your business earned Qantas Points through the program?
We’ve earned lots of points through purchasing with partners in the program, but the majority of the points we earn come from flying as our staff are travelling four to five times a month on top of the flights we take. We’re currently on Level 1 of the program so we love that we can get benefits today but will be unlocking greater savings and more rewards when we reach Level 2 of the program.
Thanks to the partner program we’re literally earning Qantas Points almost every day on the ground too. At any one time, we have four thousand litres of juice being flown across Australia with Qantas Freight.
We’ve got one truck and two cars which means we’re earning every time we fill up on fuel with Caltex – and that feels like a daily event too.
We also have sales calls with farmers in regional areas so we use Avis for these trips and we purchase a lot of our office supplies through Staples so that’s another great way for us to build up our points balance.
These are all items we’d be buying or services we’d be spending on anyway as they’re business necessities for us, so it makes it even more worthwhile when you’re earning points at the same time.
“Our business benefits from Qantas Business Rewards both in the air and on the ground” – Richard Magney & Nadia Watson
“It’s important to us all ingredients are fresh and Australian”
Q. What’s the best way you’ve used your Qantas Points?
You put every hard earned dollar back into your business to help it grow so you rarely treat yourself to a flight for a weekend away. By being able to accumulate points with so many partners, it means we can jet off on a Qantas flight somewhere in the sun for a short and much needed break. It’s important to take a break when running a small business!
We’ve also used Qantas Points really successfully to recognise and reward our staff and incentivise them to help us to continue growing the business. Over the last Christmas holiday period, we gave several staff the gift of points which they used on flights they otherwise wouldn’t have taken.
To be honest, this is one of the best parts of the program. Being able to transfer points we’ve earned from the business to any individual Qantas Frequent Flyer account is a huge plus.
Q. In what different ways have you used the Qantas Points earned as a business member?
The majority of the points we earn are used towards flights and upgrades, but we’ve used points to purchase a selection of wines from Qantas epiQure to celebrate our expansion.
Q. What’s the one partner that has made the biggest difference to your business?
It’s so easy to earn when you fly, but the new addition of Caltex is a game changer for us as we’re filling up our trucks so often and their stations are everywhere.
With our expansion plans now in full swing, we’re also looking to finance new equipment so we’re currently talking to Macquarie Leasing who we’ve learned are also a partner in the program. It definitely makes a supplier more appealing when you know they’re part of the program and you can earn points when you choose them.
“We earn points every time we fill up our trucks at Caltex”
Q. Where have you been lately and where are you planning on travelling to next?We’ve just returned from Queensland and Western Australia as we’re growing into those markets. Our next few trips are to Asia as we’re seeking out new business opportunities in that region too.
“It Is exciting to see the vision become a reality and being rewarded in the process is icing on the cake” – Richard Magney & Nadia Watson, botanica
Q. What plans do you have for your business in the future?
Botanica is currently planning a relocation to regional New South Wales as we move to a more vertically integrated platform with suppliers and logistics. The business is growing and needs to build greater economies of scale to begin challenging other larger juice players.
We still have a long way to go however we’ve started several key innovation programs which will allow our business to overtake, or at least compete, with larger, more established food and beverage companies. Working with Macquarie Leasing will be an integral part of our growth curve. Without the acquisition of new, larger output technology, we will find it very difficult to achieve our growth and competitive goals over the coming few years. It is exciting to see the vision become a reality and being rewarded in the process is the icing on the cake.
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