Spice Girlz of McLaren Vale
PO Box 1105
Mclaren  Flat
South  Australia 5171
ph: +61 8 8383 0727
fax: +61 8 83
email:bron@spicegirlz.com

No, we can’t sing, but boy, can we cook (and even dance - at times). The evidence is in the jar!

The Spice Girlz business began in 2001, cultivating and selling fresh herbs, including chillies, to supply local restaurants and cafes on the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula in South Australia.

2002 saw the beginnings of the now famously atmospheric Willunga Farmers Market - the first of its kind in South Australia and where the story really begins.
With a stall set up at the very first market (and every one since), Spice Girlz not only began selling herbs, but also a range of value added products, such as fresh herb pestos and condiments based on seasonal local produce and spices.

It wasn’t long before the value added products were in greater demand than the herbs, with sell-outs at most markets and, with local shops, cafes and wineries beginning to stock the range, it became apparent that cooking was taking over gardening time. So the decision was made to hang up the spades and put on aprons, permanently.

The Girlz’ home kitchen didn’t take long to outgrow and as several other local home based businesses had the same problem, many heads were put together and a commercial style community kitchen in Willunga was thankfully created. With a weekly roster for each business it worked brilliantly as the ‘next step’ for those involved.

The Community Kitchen became the home of the Spice Girlz two days per week for the next five years, earning a great reputation for the wonderful cooking aromas spread throughout the tiny town ship on cooking days. During this time, distributors around the country also came on board, increasing the customer base and creating orders many times over.

By late 2007, it became painfully obvious that the Spice Girlz were starting to outgrow the community kitchen - not to mention hand stirring, jar filling, lidding and labelling up to 1200 jars per week beginning to take its toll!

Managing Director Bronwyn Busbridge (right) began the search for a bigger and better solution...
“It was at a stage” says Bronwyn “that we either needed to stop marketing or move on. Quite a few producers at this point start to contract out their products, as due to the set up costs of a small factory and production equipment being prohibitively expensive, it seems the only other option.
However, I was determined not to go there! I felt the need to see exactly what is going in my pots and refused to have our recipes altered in any way (as too often happens in upscale production).”

Lucia’s Fine Foods (located in Adelaide Central Market), who have a perfect small factory set up in Salisbury South where they create their famous Lucia’s pasta sauces, came to the rescue. Matching ethics on the way food should be prepared and their production facility only being used when tomatoes are in season really made it ideal. And an added bonus was that they were more than happy for Spice Girlz to still be hands on with the manufacture of their own products.

The first up scale production at Lucia’s was in July 2008. It was a very emotional day for Bronwyn - ingredients that used to go in one pot at the community kitchen were multiplied by 30 - that’s 15kg of capsicum increased to 450kg and 10kg of limes to 300kg! Says Bron “ I related it to seeing your child go off to school for the first time - all grown up!”

So, now it’s back to marketing again!  If there is a location nearby where you would love to buy Spice Girlz products, but can’t, or you are a retailer who feel that the Spice Girlz range would suit your business, then contact your nearest distributor to spice up your life!