Filed under: direct to consumer
12 storiesThe archive, indexed. Every story carries its tags at the foot of the page.
Hero Bread walked away from Subway, then rebuilt to $54m
The low-carb baker landed an anchor customer in 2021 and was running out of money by 2022. Its chief executive says the maths never worked, so they quit the deal and started again selling direct.
Selling a $30,000 watch on Instagram Live
A watch dealer is moving five-figure timepieces through livestreams, according to a report in Inc. The mechanics of how have not been made public.
Goop Kitchen posts 61% sales growth in 2025
Gwyneth Paltrow's delivery-only food business grew sales by 61 per cent this year, using a model most investors had written off.
US bans Canadian spirits and dairy from 29 September
Washington's import ban lands three weeks out. Canada's retaliatory duties on US steel, clothing and furniture are already live. Small importers on both sides now have a diary date and no tariff codes to plan against.
Two-person Italian snack brand reports $8,000 to $10,000 a month
Joe Fiorenzo and Sheela Prakash spent $50,000 of their own money, a dozen cold emails and three weeks in Puglia to put taralli crackers into American cupboards. Their first production run sold out in under a month.
Eighth business, 5,000 pairs, half of them his own size
Greg Taylor was 37, broke and on a friend's couch when he ordered a container of underwear on a maxed-out credit card. Four years later Step One listed in Sydney.
Atorie raises $9.5m to sell factory-direct luxury handbags
The company says it buys from the same factories that make high-end goods, and sells Italian leather handbags for a few hundred dollars. It ended last year on about $5m in sales and expects an annualised run rate above $55m.
Jeni Britton's fibre bars reach Starbucks in under two years
The Jeni's ice cream founder launched Floura online. Less than two years later the bars are going into Starbucks stores.
Sydney peanut butter reaches 490 Sprouts stores in nine months
Drizzy put natural peanut butter in a squeeze bottle in November. On Monday it went on shelf across virtually the whole Sprouts chain, having skipped Coles and Woolworths entirely.
Hacker turns 31 million surveillance tests into a clothing line
Bill Swearingen ran his anti-surveillance patterns through 31 million tests before putting them on garments. The testing came first; the product came second.
Scotland pair sell out six whisky releases in 24 months
Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe are building their second career while still in the shirt. The retirement numbers explain the hurry.
Al Murray's WWII clothing firm puts 200 shirts on sale at £249
AVRE Industries, co-founded by the comedian Al Murray and the historian James Holland, has released a copy of a US Navy deck shirt. It says it has donated over £2,000 to veteran charities since 2024.