Belvedere Valley

Red Meat Value+d Program 1

5 Sept 2022

About

Judith and her husband Richard are regenerative beef farmers in the south west of Western Australia running a unique farming operation called Belvedere Valley Beef (BVB). Belvedere Valley produces three-year-old, lifetime on pasture Wagyu beef, the only one of it’s kind in WA. Belvedere Valley is on a clear mission to provide their customers with rare, organic and regeneratively farmed Wagyu beef that has been hand raised and produced on a low footprint farm. Their main customers are high end chefs who are looking for a unique and exclusive product to put on their menus and establish a competitive advantage.

After registering their business name, Belvedere Valley Beef, 9 years ago, Judith & Richard Bennett had a vision to sell their wagyu beef to consumers but limited experience in how to go about achieving it. After completing the value+d program they now have a strong vision to be the most sought after beef producer and a clear and actionable plan to achieve it, with chefs now proactively contacting them to find out how they secure some of their limited supply.

Program Journey

During the program, BVB made a significant pivot in their business direction in changing their target customer to high end chefs which has had a fundamental shift in terms of the roadmap set out by the business. The business identified some clear priorities to focus on during the program and for the next 6 months including:

• Undertaking a full carcass breakdown (as first animals ready to process) to identify COGs, pricing strategy and validate quality, flavour and other sensory attributes of the product
• Interviews with select chefs to finalise product requirements and create business customer database
• Complete on farm butchery installation and approvals; development of dry ageing capabilities
• Finalise marketing strategy including new branding design
• Soft launch to local direct business customers including pop up dinners
• Samples sent to chefs and shelf-life testing undertaken
• Expansion of on farm offering and agritourism opportunities
• Development of new value-added products utilising lesser cuts
• Exploration into opportunity in Singapore market

F2F helped us put the brakes on for a minute and stop at each point along the way to truly understand what we needed to do as we raced towards value adding our product. We now feel like we are navigating the twists and turns on the start-up journey in a sleek Mercedes rather than the old farm ute.

What's Next

Belvedere Valley has identified that the program really supported the founders to become much more organised in the way they ran their business. A clear achievement is that whilst the business was registered over 9 years ago, it had taken some time to grow the business to the current stage and because of the program, a very clear and accelerated launch to market will be achieved in the next few months.

The business will also seek to participate in the next large food event hosted in WA in 2023 to showcase their beef products to the industry. It has been forecasted that within 12 months the business will have at least 20 high end chefs, 50 online direct customers and supplying two large local events, resulting in an estimated $160,000 revenue. Similarly, with a clear focus on branding and digital marketing strategies the business will look to increase it’s brand awareness and engagement resulting in continued demand for their wagyu beef products.