IN THE midst of drought, against the centralisation trend, a young entrepreneur moved his three-year-old business toward the dry, dusty plains many of his counterparts were deserting.
For Nathan Harris, the move home to rural township Donald proved fruitful.
After 15 years of working and travelling overseas, his family bought established Cheltenham vegetable burger manufacturing business, Australian Eatwell in 1999.
By 2003, the ever-expanding enterprise had outgrown its premises.
Conscious that rural townships around Australia continually suffer from a declining population, Mr Harris and his partner Lisa Smith, decided to buck the trend and move the business 360km northwest of Melbourne.
They wanted to avoid the roll-on effect of a reduction of services in areas fraught by a declining population.
“Australian Eatwell’s focus is to reverse this trend and to add to the essential levels of social capital that ‘glue’ a community together,” its website states.
Mr Harris said the pair also moved back for the easygoing lifestyle, lower overheads, a steady reliable workforce and wide open space.
“When we outgrew Cheltenham, we realised we would have had to keep relocating if we stayed in Melbourne,” he said.
These days Australian Eatwell employs 15 locals and produces food for supermarkets Australia wide, hospitals, restaurants, cafés and gourmet food stores.
The ever-expanding range of healthy, pre-packaged meals include vegetable burgers, sausages, salamis, soup and most recently finger food “bites”.
Vegetables are bought in Ballarat, flour from nearby Inglewood and legumes from farms locally.
Since last year, the food from Eatwell also reaches people who receive Hobsons Bay’s meals on wheels.
Vegetarian meals make up seven per cent of total meals in the Hobsons Bay meals on wheels program.
The council struck a deal with Australian Eatwell after it formed a friendship alliance with the drought stricken Buloke Shire in hope of facilitating joint ventures between the city and country.
The drought has forced prices of flour, breadcrumbs and packaging up, making it more expensive for the company to provide quality food at an affordable price.
The company’s main competitor is Sanitarium, but the healthy food marketplace is big enough for the pair.
“At a retail level there is an ongoing increase in the marketplace for healthier food, and an intolerance for unhealthy food,” Mr Harris said.
In an effort to stay at the head of the game, Eatwell is investing in research and development around legumes.
