Sale of Eureka Farm – Great opportunities for the future owner

Located at  89 Upper Scamander Rd, Scamander 7215 Tasmania

Summary:   We have been asked what are the business opportunities for Eureka Farm. The purpose of this post is to highlight what we see as the future direction for this farm.  In brief the opportunity for the future operator is enormous but let me begin by saying this will not be in just growing fruit. This is what we have learnt over the years we have been here. The opportunity is in value adding in three ways:

• Making fruity food products in our commercial facility. We have developed many products which continue to be popular with our customers. We distribute and sell online. Both directions can be expanded.
• Running the cafe where we specialised in Berry and other fruity desserts, fruit smoothies and ice cream. Our ice cream is unique and people came back to us regularly. Having regular visitors promoted our fruit and other product sales.
• Accommodation is the third area which can easily be expanded. We already have 2 accommodation facilities which are let in the summer months. Scamander however lacks a upmarket glamping facility. Our farm’s location makes this the perfect setup for modular accommodation. We are in a pristine environment but still so close to the beaches.
  

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More details:

For those who are interested in how we survived and prospered at Eureka Farm we will endeavour to point out where the future opportunities lie. We have been here over 33 years and started with just a homestead and no farm. Since our startup we have changed direction many times. Partly this was due the difficulties involved but more often it was due to changes in the market conditions.

At present we own 4 titles of which we are offering  two titles. These 2 titles capture the valley we live in; all the infrastructure including the three houses and packing shed and the dam and water supply. The berries that we grow and about 1000 trees are located on these titles. Another 2000 trees are located on another title which we feel is not a necessary part of this package. (the potential buyer though could purchase this if he so desired)

Firstly I am going to explain why this is not the property for you if you are primarily interested in growing fruit.

• Growing a lot of fruit means at times you have a great deal of fruit to pick, cool down , grade and packout then distribute. We have done this in the past for apricots and plums.
• The difficulty is these days getting pickers who are familiar with the product and available on a short time basis. Our experience is that the hospitality industry grabs nearly everyone and that back packers and the like are not interested in shorter hours and lack accommodation.
• There are only a few distributors for fruit in Tasmania and exporting to the mainland is hazardous.
• Finally we are located a long distance from the local markets and further complications if we want to  transport our products to the mainland.
• All of these factors contribute to making fruit production in large quantities not viable. My understanding is that this has been the experience of others much bigger than us who failed. (for example in apricots). However in the local East Coast area where we live the complete opposite for growing and selling fruit applies with good control over prices. 
  

  Yummy apricots and blood plums

Over the years the market place for our fruit products has changed. For example we used to grow strawberries in the ground. (runners were obtained from local growers). Nowadays most strawberries are grown hydroponically and in green houses. The prices have dropped dramatically. A similar thing now seems to be happening to raspberries. We used to be the first to supply at Christmas because of the better weather on the east coast. For Tasmanians raspberries were an essential part of the Christmas tradition. Now raspberries are grown under contract to Driscolls and seem to be available all year.  Perhaps the next fruit to suffer will be cherries and wine grapes.

Even with this turbulence in certain fruit markets we have always managed quite well. This is probably somewhat to good luck. In the early days we were not sure what would be best to grow and hence planted many different fruits and varieties within those fruits. ( it is important to remember the micro climate we have and the need to avoid late frosts). The reality is that this decision has helped us spread the risk over the various years climate cycle and allowed us to provide fresh fruit in manageable quantities over and an extended period. This also helped us reduce the use of labour for picking.

What really separates us from the typical farming situation is our proximity to Tasmania’s east coast. In the tourist season the area is packed with visitors wanting something to do.

As we recognised this was where the money was we changed direction. We didn’t actually eliminate fruit production but we tailored it to what we could move locally. Value adding through the increase production of berry desserts, preserves and icecream  became core activities. Unlike our other products the ice cream was only sold on the farm. This became a major attraction. Visitors would come for  ice creams or other desserts and often buy fresh fruits or preserves.

With the advent of recognising that value adding was important we reorganised our kitchens with two separate facilities. One of the kitchens was purely for value adding and the other was for the cafe. In times gone by we did breakfast for guests and early customers and light lunches. However by far the best seller were the fruity desserts, fruit smoothies , ice creams coffee and cake.

Employment conditions with more stringent awards and backpacker rules for visa extensions made this source of labour unviable. Likewise young people out of school were no longer asking for summer work. But the upside of this equation is that we no longer supplied accommodation for our workers. We now use these two premises for holiday accommodation. In the summer months this is also a good source of income.

Looking into the future we believe there is a shortage of adventure type accommodation. What I mean by this statement is where guests can experience a farm stay without too much roughage. In our area there are facilities for glamping where guests stay in tents. But often these are rather crowded or in what I would perceive as rather hostile conditions. We have a beautiful valley with several areas under utilised. These we see as future potential for more accommodation. The type of accommodation would be in tiny homes or on pods. These would be marketed in the higher price bracket as they would be in quiet and unique surroundings.

The increase in accommodation would also help extend the cafe functionality. Breakfast  could be included in the package and access to meals and desserts during the day. I could go on but the point I am making is there is an untapped potential in running the cafe.

We would continue to develop this plan along the lines that I have been describing if we were not so old. We feel now however that

black currant jam- a great flavour

it is time to past this knowledge on to the next owners. When we started over 30 years ago there was nothing showing of the enterprise that now exists. The canvas was bare. Today we see this farm ready to really gain the benefit of our hard work assuming they take it to the next stage.

The land deal alone of roughly 22 hectares with 3 houses, 2 commercial kitchens,

processing areas for fruit , storage areas for equipment, our own water supply and radically reduced power costs due to 80 solar panels make this very attractive proposition. Knowing  this area intimately we feel that there is nothing like it on the east coast. The business potential is enormous but only for the right person. But even if the new owner doesn’t want a business the components already developed make it a good deal.

Just one thing which I haven’t explained too well is the large product range we have developed. These used to be sold all over Tasmania but now restricted to our local market and online sales. The labelling techniques and shopping trolley are all under our control.

We have a good collection of equipment for both fruit production and the value adding operations. A  walk in walk out basis can be negotiated if the new owner so desires .  Furthermore  we are prepared to do is transfer our skills and recipes to the new owner when they take over.

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