Business
18 September, 2020
Taking icecreams to a new height
Bananas are a warm climate fruit, not really seen growing wild in the back yards of Daventry in the Midlands of England.
Little did Mike McGrath realise that 30 years after leaving the UK, bananas would become a fruit to launch a dynamic business.
Mission Beach is renowned for many things, perhaps most recently as the home of Mike’s business ‘Feel Good Bananas’. Feel Good Bananas, an icy cold tropical dessert designed to compete with a Streets Magnum has really taken off in the north.
Tourists and locals alike are wrapping their laughing gear around one of the tropical delights, from Mossman in the north to Airlie Beach in the south. But the past six months have not been plain sailing for Mike.
“Feel Good Bananas was still a side business for me when Covid hit. I was a skydiver and pilot full time, but unfortunately due to COVID I’ve lost those jobs for now”.
“In addition we lost 80% of our sales with Feel Good Bananas. We supplied to the hospitality industry and that business was gone”.
Mike could have sat back and complained about his bad luck, but fortune favours the brave. “With some hard work and the assistance of the Jobkeeper program, we expanded into more retail outlets”.
Now Mike is running his van on a monthly basis down to Airlie Beach with the greatest icecream dessert you can find, plus he delivers fortnightly to Cairns, the Tablelands, Mossman and Port Douglas.
“We have rebuilt the business back to pre-COVID levels.” said McGrath.
Not content with regional success in the dessert/treat retail industry, with the help of a Queensland government Covid Adaptation Grant Mike is now taking his Feel Good Bananas to the big smoke (Brisbane) to let them experience a touch of paradise without moving out of the suburbs.
So why are the Feel Good Bananas so tasty?
“It’s the way the 70% dark chocolate offsets the sweet flavour of the banana, and the way we freeze them makes them super creamy like icecream”.
Mike’s choice of name was more than just wanting people to get a great taste sensation when they eat one of his treats. “You can feel good about our Feel Good Bananas because they are good for your mind, your body and your planet. “They are an organically grown healthy treat and the packaging is totally biodegradable”.
If you are out and about, and see their distinctive advertising at a shop near you, try one you will find them very appealing (a-peeling). Sorry had to finish on a bad pun.
