> the move to provide a wider range of products, as well as a place for Australia’s mums to focus on their mental health, came directly from their customers.

“One of the big feedbacks we got from our customers was that they wanted to be able to buy other brands from our website,” said Allen. 

“They trust us, and we realised there was a great opportunity to serve our audience by broadening our range of products.”

The new marketplace offering will enable customers to purchase from several health-related categories, such as supplements, exercise equipment, wearables, cooking, clothing, prams, and pregnancy gear, as well as products for kids and men.

The business is touting the marketplace as “a new kind of online mall”, giving brands access to its 800,000 unique visitors a month.

In addition to the marketplace, a new website and app focused on wellness will launch soon after. Branded as Healthy Mummy Wellness, the offering will include specific wellness products, such as supplements to help people focus and relax.

Both projects have been in the works for almost a year, and came out of a survey the business sent out to its customers.

“Through this survey, we found out that 90 per cent of the mums in our customer base said the number one thing they wanted from us was a more engaged wellness experience,” Allen said. 

“I was blown away by that, because 90 per cent is loud and clear. And so the wellness platform became critical to us because Healthy Mummy largely talks to physical health, and while mental health has been a focus throughout the pandemic it’s still not something we necessarily talk about as much.”

After looking around and not finding a solution that delivered a holistic approach to health and wellness specifically for mothers, Allen decided Healthy Mummy would have to make one itself. 

“They’re suffering from stress: family stress, job stress, financial stress, friend stress, stress around what to eat, stress about everything,” Allen said. 

“So we really want to offer something different, and make it work within their lives. Quite often you look at the wellness space, and realise you don’t have time for an hour-long Yoga or meditation session, so we’re trying to create advice and guidelines that can actually fit into people’s lives.”

[Halo Foods]

While the enhanced offering was in the works long before its acquisition by manufacturer Halo Foods, which was announced in February and finalised last week, Healthy Mummy’s expansion efforts will be made easier due to its new owner’s expertise.

Halo Foods focuses on the manufacturing of health-based foods, such as Tonik’s high protein, low carb drinks, and Super Cubes’ ready-to-eat meal and snack solutions.

According to Rhian, over half of the business’ current revenue is made up of its private-label products, which are manufactured by third-party operators. 

“We’ve been blessed to have had amazing contract manufacturers for the past 11 years, but to have our own in-house manufacturing now will mean we can produce things faster, at a better margin, and can do a broader range,” said Allen. 

“These are three significant areas of growth for us, and moving forward it will allow us to enter into new channels as well.”