How Australia’s next billion-dollar brands are built on community and culture

• Inclusive, allergen-friendly and Indigenous-owned food brands are gaining traction with retailers like Woolworths, Metcash, Ampol and Qantas
• ASX small caps such as Wide Open Agriculture, Wellnex Life and Pure Foods Tasmania are riding the broader “clean-living” wave
• Cooee Native Superfoods, founded by Wiradjuri entrepreneur Tezzi Daniel, shows how purpose and profit can grow side by side.

Special Report: Australian consumers are moving past the old health food clichés.

The next growth frontier in retail food is inclusive eating, with products that everyone, from vegans to coeliacs, can enjoy together.

From low-sugar snacks to dairy-free spreads, this trend is reshaping supermarket aisles. Analysts say it is part of a wider “values-based consumption” shift that favours transparency, local ingredients, and stories that connect people to place.

ASX-listed players like Wide Open Agriculture (ASX:WOA) and Wellnex Life (ASX:WNX) have already tapped into this movement.

WOA focuses on regenerative farming and lupin-based proteins, while WNX is expanding its wellness and nutrition portfolio to meet rising consumer demand for natural, functional products.

Where culture meets commerce

While most public companies are chasing the wellness dollar through science and supply chains, some of the most compelling innovations are coming from founders who start with family recipes and cultural roots.

Enter Cooee Native Superfoods, an Indigenous-owned company that began with $17.90 in loose change on a kitchen bench in Lake Macquarie. Founder Terri-Ann “Tezzi” Daniel, a Wiradjuri woman and mother of seven, built the business around inclusivity, creating cookies and snacks made for those who cannot eat gluten, dairy or nuts – without having to sacrifice taste.

Her mantra is simple: “Food from country, for everyone”.

Her brand’s native-flavoured cookies and popcorn are now stocked in Woolworths Metro, Ampol Foodery (ASX:ALD) , IGA, and SPAR QLD, with a national rollout through Metcash (ASX:MTS) underway. This month, Cooee signed a partnership with Qantas (ASX:QAN), with its Davidson plum-infused Nan’s Jam Drop cookie to be served on domestic flights from mid-October, reaching more than half a million passengers in the first year.

“It is surreal to see a family recipe now flying with Qantas,” Daniel said. “We built Cooee so no one is left out of sharing food together.”

A growing appetite for authenticity

Investors are beginning to back stories like Cooee’s.

Ochre Ventures has invested $1.5 million to fund expansion, while early support came from the Minderoo Foundation and dozens of small investors through crowdfunding.

That kind of grassroots-to-institutional journey mirrors what is happening across the clean-living sector more broadly.

Pure Foods Tasmania (ASX:PFT) is leveraging Tasmania’s image as a pristine producer to push deeper into plant-based categories, while Nuchev (ASX:NUC) focuses on premium nutritional foods built on traceability and science.

Analysts see these companies, listed or not, as riding the same macro wave: a consumer pivot toward products that reflect values like sustainability, cultural respect, and inclusion.

From kitchen tables to capital markets

As food inflation pressures households, buyers are rewarding authenticity and accessibility.

Big retailers are responding by opening shelf space to smaller, story-driven brands that align with national values.

According to industry watchers, it is a shift reminiscent of what the craft beer sector went through a decade ago, when small players changed the market narrative before the majors caught up.

For founders like Tezzi Daniel, that is the goal.

“Everyone deserves to share beautiful food together,” she says. “We are proving inclusive food can also be great food.”

For investors, the message is clear: the next wave of growth in Australian food and beverage may come from brands that pair commercial discipline with cultural authenticity.

From regenerative agriculture to allergen-free snacks, the clean-living trend is expanding from niche to mainstream, opening opportunities for both private and listed players.

This article was developed in collaboration with Cooee Native Superfoods, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.