TASMANIAN Juice Press in Cambridge is about to expand its production facilities to meet growing mainland demand for their cold pressed juices.
Company director James Cazaly said they are excited to be moving into new production facilities by mid next year where they could boost production by 400 to 1000 per cent.
Mr Cazaly said the biggest hurdle to increasing the mainland market is that cold press juice only lasts 12 to 14 days.
“We are looking into investing in equipment that will extend that shelf life and we are also hoping to find a less expensive cold chain partner.
“It’s very labour intensive making these juices so we need to invest in more juice pressing gear too.”
Juice Press is committed to sourcing produce locally where it can and taking full advantage of quality Tasmanian produce all year round.
“We are known around the world for our fantastic produce and buying local is a big thing for us,” he said.
“We love supporting local businesses and putting back into the community’s pockets is something that’s really close to our hearts,” he said.
The opportunity came to take over Juice Press in June 2019 alongside their distillery business, Endangered Distillery Co.
They started distilling in 2018 with a focus on waste-conscious spirits, making vodka from bread sourced from bakeries.
“We saw that it could really help boost the business into other areas and it was a really good fit to our distillery,” he said.
“We make gin out of waste juice so it just fits in with the whole philosophy.
“After taking on Juice Press we realised there was actually a fair amount of waste and juices are pretty much made to be fermented and distilled.”
Mr Cazaly said taking on Juice Press has added value to their distillery.
Juice Press offers seven core range juices and a special juice that rotates every fortnight. They produce specialty juices like pineapple, apple, lemon, lime and bloody Mary.
“We really try to use seasonal produce in our juices and things in season, using lots of hydro fruits so things like berries during the warmer months,” Mr Cazaly said.
“Occasionally, if it’s in the middle of winter we usually try to do something a little more tropical to ease the monotony of the cold.
“We generally try to have components that are in season or otherwise not get used.”
They source their greens for the Green juice from Xais in Campania and their root vegetables like beetroot, carrots, ginger (when available) from Harvest Moon.
All its juices contain apple. About four tonnes a week are sourced from Willie Smith in the Huon Valley.
Their apple juice, Greens Juice and Reboot, is 100 per cent Tasmanian.
“Most of our juices are at least 50 per cent apple and all of them are mainly Tasmanian produce,” Mr Cazaly said.
Their tropical fruits come mainly from Queensland with citrus coming from Mildura.
“Once we exhaust our local stock, it’s back to getting it from the mainland,” Mr Cazaly said.
Tasmanian Juice Press produce about 2000 litres that is distributed wholesale throughout Tasmania to cafes like Born in Brunswick in North Hobart and high-end hotels like Sapphire and Freycinet for their mini bars and breakfast bars.
They also produce about 1500 litres a week for Salamanca and Farm Gate markets.
All of their juices sold in glass bottles.
Mr Cazaly said they made the decision earlier on when they bought the company to move from the use of plastic to glass.
“Yes, plastic is a lot cheaper and easier to get a hold of in terms of quantity but it’s obviously not great for the environment,” he said.
“Glass is great for a couple of reasons. It’s better for the environment, it’s a lot easier to recycle and you can reuse it dozens and dozens of times.
“The response from consumers is positive and most of our market customers bring back our bottles and we give them $1 off per bottle for their new ones.”
The labels on their bottles are also made from recycled paper with the lid the only element that’s not reusable. Currently they are working on a solution to make their product as close to 100 per cent reusable as they can.
Their commitment to reusable material for their juices comes at a cost with glass their biggest bill.
“Some months we might spend $30,000 just on glass, it’s not cheap,” he said.
They’ve experienced about four price increases in their glass bill in the last year which has doubled the cost of the glass.