Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Narelle Plapp started Food for Health twenty years ago making recipes for patients who couldn't find allergy-friendly food on any shelf. She loaded her first Woolworths order by hand - 14 pallets that showed up via fax and had to be paid on delivery, funded by $13,000 from her parents. One SKU eventually did over $2 million in a single retailer. Then she did something most brand founders never attempt: she borrowed $8 million, bought a paddock, and built her own factory. Nine years later, Grain and Bake is a $35 million business - targeting $45 million this year - manufacturing for some of Australia's biggest food brands, running 24 hours a day, five days a week.
In this interview, Narelle breaks down what it actually costs to manufacture an allergy-friendly bar, the brutal reality of retailer margins most founders don't see until it's too late, and how she convinced the bank to back a factory before she had a single confirmed customer.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How she got her first Woolworths ranging by making sure friends and family bought out every trial store
• Why she borrowed $8M to build a factory on a paddock - and the soft commitments from brands that got the bank across the line
• What it actually costs to manufacture an allergy-friendly bar - the hidden 10-hour cleans, swabs, and 8-person cleaning crews most founders never budget for
• The $0.40 per bar reality - and how to work backwards from RRP to know if your margins will survive retail
• Why retailer category margins have jumped from 35% to 55% minimum over 20 years - and what that means for your P&L before you pitch Coles or Woolies
• The 13-week clock: how long you have to prove velocity on shelf before you get cut
• How a $4M investment in automated cartoning increased her line output by 30% - and why she passed the savings to her brand clients
• Why she trawled Europe to find the right oven - and what it takes to commission a factory when you've never built one before
• The Grain and Bake client model: why manufacturing for other brands makes her a partner in their success, not just a supplier
• What she'd tell every CPG founder before they pitch a retailer - the whiteboard session that changed one AFL footballer's entire business plan
If you're building a CPG brand, trying to understand the real cost of manufacturing and retail at scale, or just want an unfiltered view of what Australian food manufacturing actually looks like from the inside, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about supply chain, margins, and what it takes to build something that lasts 20 years.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → your.omnisend.com/foundr
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS? Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 and 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
Starting from scratch? Apply here → foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
Already have a store? Apply here → foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan
CONNECT WITH NARELLE PLAP
Instagram → instagram.com/narelleplapp/
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/narelle-plapp-27b3771a/
Website → https://grainandbakeco.com.au/
0:00 Naturopath to $45M Food Manufacturer
0:17 Recipes for Patients That Became a Retail Brand
1:27 Getting Into Coles Before Health Was Cool
2:57 15 Pallets Hand-Loaded With $13K From Mum and Dad
4:45 The $2M Muesli Bar SKU
5:22 A Paddock to a 10,000sqm Factory in Nine Years
7:51 How She Convinced the Bank to Fund an $8M Build
9:01 Trawling Europe to Find the Right Oven
10:51 What It Actually Costs to Make a Muesli Bar
14:03 The Hidden Cost of Going Allergy-Friendly
18:40 DTC First or Retail First?
22:09 The 13-Week Clock That Decides If You Survive
25:00 What Gets Brands on Shelf — and Keeps Them There
27:48 Retailers Take 55%: The Real Cost of Coles and Woolies
32:11 Why She Stopped Trying to Be a Marketer
38:18 Running a 24-Hour Factory With 85 People
41:14 The $4M Investment That Lifted Output 30%
44:08 $35M to $45M: What's Next
46:07 Final Thoughts and Wrap Up
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → foundr.com
Instagram → instagram.com/foundr
Facebook → facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/foundr
Podcast → foundr.com/podcast
Narelle Plapp started Food for Health twenty years ago making recipes for patients who couldn't find allergy-friendly food on any shelf. She loaded her first Woolworths order by hand - 14 pallets that showed up via fax and had to be paid on delivery, funded by $13,000 from her parents. One SKU eventually did over $2 million in a single retailer. Then she did something most brand founders never attempt: she borrowed $8 million, bought a paddock, and built her own factory. Nine years later, Grain and Bake is a $35 million business - targeting $45 million this year - manufacturing for some of Australia's biggest food brands, running 24 hours a day, five days a week.
In this interview, Narelle breaks down what it actually costs to manufacture an allergy-friendly bar, the brutal reality of retailer margins most founders don't see until it's too late, and how she convinced the bank to back a factory before she had a single confirmed customer.
What you'll learn in this interview:
• How she got her first Woolworths ranging by making sure friends and family bought out every trial store
• Why she borrowed $8M to build a factory on a paddock - and the soft commitments from brands that got the bank across the line
• What it actually costs to manufacture an allergy-friendly bar - the hidden 10-hour cleans, swabs, and 8-person cleaning crews most founders never budget for
• The $0.40 per bar reality - and how to work backwards from RRP to know if your margins will survive retail
• Why retailer category margins have jumped from 35% to 55% minimum over 20 years - and what that means for your P&L before you pitch Coles or Woolies
• The 13-week clock: how long you have to prove velocity on shelf before you get cut
• How a $4M investment in automated cartoning increased her line output by 30% - and why she passed the savings to her brand clients
• Why she trawled Europe to find the right oven - and what it takes to commission a factory when you've never built one before
• The Grain and Bake client model: why manufacturing for other brands makes her a partner in their success, not just a supplier
• What she'd tell every CPG founder before they pitch a retailer - the whiteboard session that changed one AFL footballer's entire business plan
If you're building a CPG brand, trying to understand the real cost of manufacturing and retail at scale, or just want an unfiltered view of what Australian food manufacturing actually looks like from the inside, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about supply chain, margins, and what it takes to build something that lasts 20 years.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → your.omnisend.com/foundr
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS? Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 and 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
Starting from scratch? Apply here → foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
Already have a store? Apply here → foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan
CONNECT WITH NARELLE PLAP
Instagram → instagram.com/narelleplapp/
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/narelle-plapp-27b3771a/
Website → https://grainandbakeco.com.au/
0:00 Naturopath to $45M Food Manufacturer
0:17 Recipes for Patients That Became a Retail Brand
1:27 Getting Into Coles Before Health Was Cool
2:57 15 Pallets Hand-Loaded With $13K From Mum and Dad
4:45 The $2M Muesli Bar SKU
5:22 A Paddock to a 10,000sqm Factory in Nine Years
7:51 How She Convinced the Bank to Fund an $8M Build
9:01 Trawling Europe to Find the Right Oven
10:51 What It Actually Costs to Make a Muesli Bar
14:03 The Hidden Cost of Going Allergy-Friendly
18:40 DTC First or Retail First?
22:09 The 13-Week Clock That Decides If You Survive
25:00 What Gets Brands on Shelf — and Keeps Them There
27:48 Retailers Take 55%: The Real Cost of Coles and Woolies
32:11 Why She Stopped Trying to Be a Marketer
38:18 Running a 24-Hour Factory With 85 People
41:14 The $4M Investment That Lifted Output 30%
44:08 $35M to $45M: What's Next
46:07 Final Thoughts and Wrap Up
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → foundr.com
Instagram → instagram.com/foundr
Facebook → facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → linkedin.com/company/foundr
Podcast → foundr.com/podcast
