How three fellow university students turned an assignment on a common problem into a thriving business that lands a deal with Dan Murphy’s

Three bright young Australian students have proven their business talent by not only being selected for an exclusive university education, but also turning that opportunity into a successful start-up business thanks to a genius idea.

Budding entrepreneurs Gabriel Tucker, Max Moolman and Bridget Lansell were among 30 people chosen from 500 applicants for the Fastrack Accelerator program at Monash University in Melbourne.

They had never met until the first day of the course, but they hit it off so well that they decided to work together on an assignment with the broad brief of finding a solution to an economic problem of their choice.

While it took them a long time to find the right problem to tackle, they settled on food waste, which costs the Australian economy approximately $36.6 billion a year.

Mr Moolman was surprised at the amount of food that is wasted, despite Australia’s ‘great produce’.

Upon further investigation, the trio discovered that about a quarter of all produce never leaves the farm where it was grown, even if it is perfectly edible, as it looks a bit ‘wobbly’.

They thought it was the most ridiculous thing they had ever heard and decided to do something about it.

When Mr Tucker saw how a bowling club used the profits from the beer to save other bowling clubs from closing, they got the idea to start making alcoholic beverages from agricultural products that would otherwise be thrown away. And so Wonki was born.

Budding entrepreneurs Gabriel Tucker, Bridget Lansell and Max Moolman (pictured) were among 30 people chosen from 500 applicants for the Fastrack Accelerator program at Monash University in Melbourne

“We went into the market in Australia and we couldn’t find a single alcoholic product that used imperfect or misshapen fruit,” Mr Moolman said. Yeah.

They thought this was odd, since juice, jam and all sorts of other everyday products were made from fruits that would be considered second or third class.

The students came up with the brand name Wonki, but to make their venture a success, it took more than a clever pun, especially since they were competing with a large number of long-established companies.

So they asked Melbourne residents what they thought about ready-mixed drinks, asking them if the existing products were too sweet and what flavours they would like to see.

After finding what they wanted to launch, they enlisted a company called Farmers Pick to source the produce, Market Juice to make the juices, and Gypsy Hub to make the drinks.

They raised $30,000 through a crowdfunding initiative and used it to create their first batch of Wonki vodka sodas.

They then went to bars and liquor stores to ask if they could sell their brand, causing the leather on their shoes to wear out.

It worked and within a few months even drinks giant Dan Murphy’s had Wonki in its range.

This is all the more impressive when you consider that Dan Murphy’s receives around 400 requests each year from companies wanting to market their ready-to-drink beverages.

Wonki is now available in 33 Dan Murphy’s stores in Victoria, 35 BWS locations and 30 independent stores.

Bridget Lansell, one of the creators of Wonki, is pictured promoting the brand

The trio’s genius idea was to use fruit that would otherwise be wasted because it was misshapen to make alcohol

With the weather getting warmer and citrus fruits on the way, they are set to re-release their Blood Orange and Mandarin flavor (pictured)

The trio’s trajectory of success has been impressive. They met at the end of 2021, worked on their idea in 2022, launched it in mid-2023, and celebrated a Dan Murphy’s contract Christmas that year.

Their business turnover for the 2023-2024 financial year was $205,000 and they are confident this will continue to grow, helping them save more of the 7.6 million tonnes of food that is thrown away in Australia each year, 70 per cent of which is perfectly good but doesn’t make it onto supermarket shelves because it is deemed misshapen.

“We are saving at least two and a half to three kilos of produce, but we have only saved over 10 tonnes of produce from farms since the middle of last year,” Mr Moolman said.

“We think we can save a lot more. The ultimate goal is to eliminate second or third grade waste from an entire farm every season.”

Another short-term goal for the trio, who are aged between 23 and 25, is to expand beyond Victoria to the rest of the country and find farmers in other states whose produce they can use to make drinks.

Since fruit is a seasonal product, the two Wonki flavors currently on sale are: Watermelon & Lemon, and Cucumber & Lime.

Now that the weather is getting warmer and citrus fruits are on their way, they will soon be re-releasing their Blood Orange and Mandarin flavors.