Coles has awarded $3.5 million in grants to 11 small and medium-sized Australian businesses under the latest round of its Coles Nurture Fund.
The funding aims to help local producers implement sustainable and innovative projects that benefit their operations, customers, and the environment.
Among the recipients, Western Australia’s Blazing Saddles received $250,000 to introduce new cardboard punnets to replace plastic packaging, potentially removing up to 98 per cent of plastic waste from its supply chain.
“As a small grower, we never thought we’d be leading the charge on packaging innovation,” said owner Lance Fitzgerald. “This grant will help us invest in the right equipment and drive positive change.”
Victorian winery Fowles Wine secured $500,000 to implement an Australian-first micro-bat navigation system, BatNavs, to control pests naturally and reduce the need for pesticides.
Owner Matt Fowles said, “We live by the idea of ‘farming in nature’s image’, which means finding ways to work with nature rather than against it.”
Other grant recipients include:
- Dates Farms Australia (Walkerie, SA) – $500,000 for a solar-powered data processing facility
- Cudgen Road Farms (Cudgen, NSW) – $450,000 for a new sweet potato harvester
- Hearman Ag (Charley Creek, WA) – $138,000 for an AI-driven solar pumping system
- Healthy Tech (Bowden, SA) – $175,000 for real-time veterinary support
- K&M Farming Trust (Manypeaks, WA) – $245,000 for solar-powered GPS cattle tracking
- Salamanca Pastoral (Hotspur, VIC) – $90,000 for native shelter belts and a freshwater system
- Talwali Coffee Roasters (Hampton Park, VIC) – $400,000 to grow local coffee using renewable energy
- Topsoil Organics (Forbes, NSW) – $500,000 for compost bagging of Coles’ food waste
- Foodbank SA & NT (Edwardstown, SA) – $250,000 for cyclone-proof food lockers in remote communities
“Sustainable growth needs collaboration, and the Coles Nurture Fund plays a vital role in helping producers bring these ambitious ideas to life,” says Coles’ chief commercial and sustainability officer Anna Croft.
“We’re proud to support these businesses that are pioneering smart and practical solutions that will help create a more sustainable future.”
The Coles Nurture Fund, now in its eleventh year, has distributed more than $40 million in financial support to 119 Australian producers.
- This story was originally published on Inside FMCG.
