Still hand-made after 13 years of manufacture, Loco Love chocolates are free of all gluten, dairy or refined sugars. The range includes Maple, Macadamia Caramel, Classic Chewy Caramel and newcomer Pistachio Mylk Praline. The Byron Bay-based company now produces as many as 120,000 individual chocolate bars each week and continues to have trouble meeting ever-increasing demand. A banner across the company website warns “Due to High Order Volumes, Dispatch Delay of Ten Days”.
A Financial Review Fast 100 finalist in the manufacturing category, Loco Love has grown fast since it was launched in 2012. With revenue of more than $7.2 million in the 2023 financial year, nearly $8.8 million in 2024, and almost $12.8 million in 2025, the company now has a CAGR of 32.97 per cent and employs about 25 full-time staff and 60 casuals.
The company is set to consolidate this growth next year with a move to bigger premises and the introduction of automation into the chocolate manufacturing process. The automation will make production easier on staff as well as allowing for increased output, says founder and naturopath Emica Penklis.
Loco Love emerged when Penklis began playing around with ingredients to make chocolates that anyone could enjoy, regardless of their allergies and food intolerances.
“I wanted to make something that was good for people,” she says. “I used herbs and my knowledge of nutrition to create recipes that were better for people. I was working in health-food shops and as a naturopath dealing with a lot of people with gluten intolerance and dairy intolerance, and they didn’t want to have too much sugar.”
Loco Love recipes include coconut sugar, maple syrup and brown rice syrup as sweeteners, and Penklis says these “natural, whole-food sweeteners” don’t produce spikes in blood sugar.
Loco Love has grown without taking on debt or relying on external capital injections, instead reinvesting profit. This year Penklis sold a sizeable portion of the company to reduce her workload and spend more time with her family – she has two young sons, aged three and six.
“The demands of a growing business – trying to be a mother and a business-owner and then trying to find some time for myself within that, has been challenging,” she says.
Wholesale sales currently account for 80 per cent of Loco Love’s business, and the chocolates are stocked by over 1,000 premium retailers across Australia. The remaining 20 per cent of sales are direct-to-consumer, which Penklis expects will expand after production increases.
Loco Love chocolates are comparatively pricy. According to the company website, a small single bar – 35 grams – of the Pistachio Mylk Praline sells for $7.45, yet pricing appears irrelevant to ardent customers. That flavour is currently sold out.
These loyal customers are a “big focus” of Loco Love, Penklis says, noting that strict attention is paid to their feedback. “Our customers are very honest with us, which is sometimes challenging,” she says. “If they don’t like a flavour, they tell us how they feel, which is great, because it means they care.”
In an entirely different enterprise, the disposable nappies and wet-wipes marketed by Gold Coast-based company Joonya were inspired by the irritated bottoms of two little boys.
Richard and Leanne Sexton’s two sons, now aged 11 and 12, were prone to nappy rash when they were infants. At the time, ingredients listed on the packaging of disposable nappies included various toxic-sounding chemicals which they say rang alarm bells.
Their GP prescribed medicinal creams to combat the nappy rash, but the Sextons simply stopped using wet-wipes and mass-produced disposable nappies and their sons’ skin rapidly cleared.
Inspired, they decided to market a gentle and eco-friendly brand of wipes and nappies. “I left my job,” Leanne says. “I used to work in publishing and Richard was working remotely, and we just took a huge leap of faith. It was actually quite crazy, now looking back, but we had this this vision and this passion.”
This vision has powered Joonya since it was founded in 2016, and this year the company is a Financial Review Fast 100 finalist in the manufacturing category. With revenue of more than $2.3 million in the 2023 financial year, more than $3.8 million in 2024, and just under $6.2 million in 2025, Joonya now has a CAGR of 63.79 per cent.
There no rapid expansion plans for the company – the Sextons are happy with Joonya’s current rate of growth and they are wary of the dangers inherent in growing too quickly.
They work from home and rather than employ staff, they outsource different types of work to freelancers when necessary. They see their set-up as a rational modern-world choice for families with children – they don’t have the headaches of managing staff, they are around when their sons get home from school, and they can adjust their working days as they need to.
Their parent perspective, Leanne says, drove their decision to develop a brand with a tight focus on non-toxic ingredients. There were no bulk-buy discounts offered by the big brands a decade or so ago when Joonya was getting started, so they also wanted to offer include bulk-buy options.
“It seems crazy, but we ended up crunching the numbers and trying to figure out a model where we could give the customer back more savings on premium, non-toxic, biodegradable products,” Leanne adds.
Joonya’s first bulk carton had 24 packs of compostable wipes – a revolutionary offer at the time – and extremely popular when consumers understood they were saving 30–40 per cent on the cost per pack. After wet-wipes came a range of Joonya disposable nappies. The Sextons decided to use an ecologically-minded manufacturer in Denmark to ensure the products were as environmentally gentle as they could be.
“The same principles apply to all our products,” Richard says. “It’s at the heart of our brand: the non-toxic, eco-friendly theme is across everything.”
Joonya products are independently tested for harsh chemicals, including chlorine, the Sextons say, which is important to ensure fragile baby-skin isn’t exposed to toxic solutions in perfumes and preservatives.
The brand is entirely focused on direct-to-consumer sales, via the Joonya website and also via Amazon and other on-line marketplaces. US-based customers now comprise 75 per cent of the company’s business, and Joonya offers subscriptions – recurring orders – for a better price.
“That’s the pay-off,” Leanne says. “If they do subscribe, what we get is their loyalty, and they get the best price from us, a price that you couldn’t find in any retailer.”
Sydney-based York St Brands, by way of contrast, looks to both retailers and direct on-line sales to market a range of cosmetic products, including several for skincare.
The successful result of a 2023 merger between two skincare companies, tbh skincare and Boost Lab, York St Brands brought together executives with complementary skills from each of the companies, says CEO Craig Schweighoffer.
“There are synergies there,” he says, adding the merger provided scale with annual revenue jumping from $2.5 million each to a total of $5 million. “We then had a complete management team with skills from finance and marketing to operations and retail experience.”
He launched Boost Lab in 2020, and the company marketed a range of seven skincare serums focused on the over-45 consumer who may be a little daunted by complicated and expensive skincare choices.
Tbh skincare, now known as The Breakout Hack, was run by mother and daughter team Bridget Mitchell and Rachael Wilde. The company’s products resonate with younger consumers and include a technology-based spot cream and cleanser to clear acne, Schweighoffer says.
Before the merger, The Breakout Hack products were predominantly selling on-line and Boost Lab products were mostly retail, marketed in pharmacies. After the merger, synergies in the leadership team enhanced sales of both product ranges, he adds. Wilde helped grow Boost Lab online sales and Schweighoffer accelerated Breakout Hack retail sales.
In May this year, the merged company launched Bouf, a brand focussed on hair loss and hair-thinning. It includes ingredients that attack a protein that causes hair to fall out, Schweighoffer says, adding: “It’s great technology and we’ve had incredible results”.
About 30 new products in different stages of development are now on the York St Brands launch list, with releases on the drawing-board from March next year.
The company is a 2025 Financial Review Fast 100 finalist in the manufacturing category. With revenue of just over $5 million in the 2023 financial year, more than $22 million in 2024, and just under $33.4 million in 2025, York St Brands currently has a CAGR of 157.65 per cent. Now employing 40 staff across the three brands, executives are considering plans for future expansion.
Speaking from London, where York St Brands is launching Boost Lab and The Breakout Hack products in Boots pharmacies, a nationwide chain, Schweighoffer says he expects substantial further growth in Australia. “We’ve grown fast and we’ve got a substantial business but we’ve just got to do more of the same in Australia and grow awareness,” he adds.
The company plans to replicate its strength in Australia and New Zealand in the UK. While the UK launch is happening, moves are underway to ensure the ingredients and packaging claims of York St Brands product range comply with US requirements.
“We’re getting that done in the background so we can launch in the US and other markets when the time’s right,” Schweighoffer says. “We try and take on one market at time, and own that and then move on to the next.”