SECOND SQUEEZE:
LEVERAGING INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

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Waste Transition Focus Pty Ltd – trading as Second Squeeze – is a pioneering company in the upcycled food industry, leveraging extensive prior experience and expertise in fruit processing and drink manufacturing. The leadership team’s deep understanding of fruit processing and drink manufacturing, along with their extensive experience in related business ventures, provides a solid foundation for their upcycling initiatives.

A UNIQUE BUSINESS MODEL

Second Squeeze provides a range of options to facilitate upcycling, drawing on the team’s extensive experience and industry connections. The company’s unique business model involves helping organisations identify potential materials that could be upcycled, providing suggestions for new product ideas and potential ingredients, supplying ingredients or guidance for organisations to develop their own upcycled products, and/or working with organisations to develop upcycled products under the Second Squeeze banner. This multifaceted approach means they can cater to the unique needs of those who have surplus that could be transformed into value added products, as well as those seeking to develop upcycled food products.

ADAPTIBILITY AND COST- EFFECTIVE MARKETING

Second Squeeze’s ability to divert significant amounts of waste and deal with various kinds of food waste is another strength. Their processing methods and technologies, being low-tech, allow for potential growth by developing facilities in areas with concentrated food manufacturing or fruit and vegetable growing. Added to this, Second Squeeze utilise facilities from existing ventures to support the launch and scaling of upcycled food products they manufacture, thereby reducing capital investments. Whilst there is a focus on ensuring consistency in production, their approach to upcycling allows flexibility in terms of ingredients they source and extending the shelf life of seasonal products, thereby reducing the impact of supply fluctuations.

“We started thinking, well, it’s the crossing of industries where the answer is. It’s not just making a carrot powder. It’s taking that carrot powder and teaming with a bakery to make a carrot cake and then having the end consumer that’s looking for upcycled products to connect it to.”
– Michael Paull and Brent Beauchamp, Co-founders, Second Squeeze

STRONG INDUSTRY CONNECTIONS

The company’s pre-existing relationships and experience have been crucial in sourcing and developing upcycled food products. They have been able to leverage their existing resources and networks to identify market opportunities based on surplus and waste products. Second Squeeze has also adopted what could be described as a strategic approach to upcycling, in that they have not only worked to build strong relationships, but they also align proposed upcycled products with corporate strategies, helping to build strong business cases for upcycling.

LOCAL SOURCING AND SUSTAINABILITY

A key aspect of Second Squeeze’s approach is local sourcing and sustainability. They source surplus fruit and other by-products from local farms and manufacturers, ensuring sustainability and reducing transportation costs. The company’s commitment to paying farmers for surplus produce, rather than relying on donations, provides stability and ensures financial benefit for all parties involved.

“We’re not coming in from an angle where we’re saying to people we’ll take our excess fruit or whatever it may be, and we’ll pay you the dumping fees. We figure the only way that this waste problem is ever going to be fixed is by monetising it for everybody.”
– Michael Paull and Brent Beauchamp, Co-founders, Second Squeeze

CONCLUSION

In summary, Second Squeeze’s extensive expertise, existing resources, market positioning, unique business model, local sourcing, cost-effective manufacturing, low capital investment, and strategic relationships collectively contribute to their success and position them as one to watch in the upcycled food industry.

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Information

This case study is part of the Accelerating Food Transformation project which is proudly funded by the Queensland Government and End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, whose activities are funded by the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centre Program. This work was also supported by Queensland University of Technology.

Timeline

01/04/20023 – 31/10/2025

Author

Hope Johnson, Queensland University of Technology

Participants