Milkadamia Grows Macadamia Nut Platform With New Product Launches

With the goal of being “part of the solution” to environmentally damaging supply chains in the food industry and beyond, macadamia-based food and beverage brand Milkadamia is set to debut a slate of new offerings at Natural Products Expo East in Philadelphia this week that expand its portfolio across several different categories, including plant-based ice cream, nut milks and skincare.

Milkadamia was founded in Australia in 2015 before launching its U.S. business, headquartered in Illinois, in 2016. Starting with its macadamia nut-based milks, the brand has since expanded in food over the last two years with a non-dairy butter spread product and cooking oils. The products are currently sold at over 12,000 retailers, including Whole Foods, Walmart, Target and Safeway.

According to CEO Jim Richards, Milkadamia seeks to expand the use occasion for macadamia nuts while also producing food products that are good for the environment and absent from dairy and palm oils, production of which contributes to deforestation. The company grows its own macadamias at its farm in Australia using regenerative agriculture practices, but also relies on the waste streams of the macadamia industry by upcycling broken pieces of macadamia that often result from cracking the nut’s hard shell.

“There’s no point in just yelling and screaming about deforestation, you have to offer alternatives,” Richards said. “We’re trying to figure out how to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem and still be a producer of food and agriculturalists as we are through for our farms.”

The company hopes to balance this “ominous” environmental messaging with “celebratory” products like ice cream. Milkdamia’s Plant Based Ice Creamier pints will be offered in four flavors — Adore Chocolate, Like Vanilla, Love Strawberry and Fancy Coffee — and are set to debut at Expo East later this week. Richards said the company is targeting the natural channel with this line, with the product likely to debut in stores early next year.

Rather than play to trends like low sugar and low calories, Richards said Milkadamia instead wants to position the line as a “delightful indulgence” with no sacrifice on taste required. The dairy-free product is also free of the gums or palm oil derivatives that are common in most vegan ice cream products, he said, offering shoppers a simple and sustainable ingredient list.

Richards said the products felt like a “natural extension” from its butter spread, launched in 2019. The brand also debuted a macadamia nut cooking oil and a line of flavored macadamia nut oil-based cooking sprays in January.

Milkadamia is also set to debut its first seasonal products, a line of festive macadamia milks including White Chocolate Peppermint and Veggnog (vegan eggnog), with a planned retail launch later this winter.

“We try to take plant-based products forward every time we make something rather than just repeat what’s already been done with a different flavor or a slightly different tweak,” he said. “We’re trying to bring the whole industry another step forward because I think plant-based is great, but there’s still a long, long way we can go in terms of making plant-based even better.”

After producing private label macadamia oil-based beauty products for several years, the brand will also launch a moisturizer called Skinn Milk, the first product in a new line of branded macadamia oil-based skincare products. Milkadamia first showed the skincare line at trade shows in 2019, but decided to hold off on an official launch until it had backend processes in place. For example, though the brand debuted a direct-to-consumer site selling its milk and creamer offerings in May, Richards said the impetus to launch the web store was to ultimately sell its beauty line.

On top of the products it has slated for Expo East, Richards said the company is also developing new dairy alternatives like plant-based cheeses as well as a nut butter made with macadamia nuts. With so many launches on the horizon, Milkadamia will look to nearly double its seven-person team, Richards said, especially as it looks to eventually move from relying on co-packers for production to self-manufacturing. It’ll also be making a major marketing push, an area Richards said the company has not previously invested much money in, through a restructuring of its budget for 2022. The new marketing plan will likely feature more paid media and sampling, he said, which will help the company compete with other larger plant-based dairy players.

“Unless we want to be a very niche player who never becomes any more than that, we have to start reacting to the amount of money that’s being spent on oatmilk right now, for instance,” Richards said. “We can’t be silent right now.”