Vegan Business Talk episode 164

In this episode I interview Rebecca Ettridge, the owner of Wombat Café & Store, the Mornington Peninsula’s first 100% vegan café in Victoria, Australia, founded in 2016.

Wombat regularly raises and donates substantial amounts of money to Australian animal sanctuaries along with ongoing monthly payments to #paytherent, a grassroots Indigenous organization.

The café, which has expanded to a team of 16 employees, also funds the running costs of its own farm sanctuary, Plumfield Farm, which currently houses 92 residents.

Rebecca has managed all this by running the café remotely (she lives 3 hours away) since the business was only 18 months old, despite being told this couldn’t be done – and without any online sales.

In this interview Rebecca discusses:

• Why she decided to open a vegan café in a non-metropolitan area

• How she’s managed to retain staff in an industry that typically sees a high turnover

• How she’s able to run the business remotely so she can focus on working in her animal sanctuary

• The impact of Covid on the business

• Why she decided not to offer online sales or even have a website for the business

• Her use of the word ‘vegan’ in the café’s branding and marketing and how this changed over the years

• And more