The annual Naturally Good Awards is a pinnacle event in the natural and conscious products industry calendar. Not only do winners enjoy the gains of a turbo boost in brand exposure, but each year, this recognition has led to new paths of significant opportunity.
Winners (and runners-up) have gone on to strike substantial business deals and prominent connections with other industry professionals, sometimes taking them in a direction they never imagined.
2025’s Naturally Good Awards (sponsored by WellBeing and Eat Well Magazine) took place at Sydney’s chic waterside lounge, Bungalow 8. Competition was as fierce as ever, with the full Naturally Good community eager to see which brands would take the accolades in this landmark 10-year celebratory year.
Congratulations to Nimbus, winning the Best New Brand Award for their planet-friendly, powdered plant-based milk range!
Find out more about the story behind their award-winning products and get the inside scoop on how the experience has helped raise the bar for their business in this exclusive Q&A.
Tell us a bit about your brand story
You know when you open a carton of oat milk, use it once, and a few days later it’s gone bad? That’s why I created Nimbus – Australia’s first oat milk powder. Made with Aussie oats and avocado oil, with no nasties. Just add water, shake, and make what you need, when you need it. It’s shelf-stable, cuts waste and uses 90% less packaging.
Nimbus is about solving the problem at its source, creating plant milk without the packaging waste, the transport emissions, or the food spoilage of liquid milk. And if along the way we can help people see the bigger picture about packaging, materials, and the realities of recycling, then we’re making an even bigger difference.
What’s the story behind your award-winning product?
I started Nimbus after a surprising, and pretty frustrating discovery. After checking local recycling rules in my area, I learned that cartons, despite having those neat little recycling symbols, are rarely recycled. Technically, they can be, but the reality is not what it seems. Each carton is made of six tightly bonded layers of plastic, aluminium, and cardboard. Separating those layers is so complex and uneconomical that it almost never happens.
There’s now one facility in Australia that can downcycle them into building materials, but it can only take about 10% of the total volume. Unfortunately, large companies like to promote this as though the problem is solved. But if you talk to anyone in waste management, they’ll tell you multi-material cartons are still a huge issue. We all know coffee cups are problematic with just a single layer of plastic — so imagine a six-layer, three-material carton. Most people think they’re just cardboard. I did too, until a few years ago.
At the time, we were already doing our best to minimise waste in every part of life, but I couldn’t get away from those Tetra Paks. They just kept stacking up. I started wondering if other people felt the same, so I surveyed 600 plant milk drinkers. It turns out, it wasn’t just me — it was a shared frustration.
That survey also revealed two other big insights. First, food waste was just as big an issue as packaging waste. People hated opening a one-litre carton, using it once or twice and then pouring the rest down the sink when it expired. Large brands “solve” this with 250ml mini cartons — which is even more packaging — but Nimbus customers just make the exact amount they need, so nothing goes to waste.
Second, seed oils weren’t very popular. We are not agreeing that seed oils are necessarily bad at all, but people clearly wanted an alternative and more variety. So we became the first to create a plant milk with avocado oil, offering something different for those who want a change from the same old seed-oil blends.
Some people ask why, if we care so much about waste, we still use plastic packaging. The big win here is that 1,000 litres’ worth of Nimbus packaging fits into a single shopping bag – and we recycle it via RecycleSmart. That massive reduction is where the real impact is. Recycling is just the cherry on top.
What have been your top gains from Naturally Good 2025?
Our biggest gains from Naturally Good 2025 have been boosting brand awareness and connecting face-to-face with so many of our existing and potential retailers. There’s something invaluable about those in-person conversations. Plus, everyone at Naturally Good is a consumer too, so it’s like having a huge live focus group — giving us instant, honest feedback on our products and messaging. That kind of insight is hard to replicate anywhere else.
How do you see Nimbus growing in the coming year?
We’re in a strong growth phase, with online sales climbing rapidly, and more health and independent retailers joining us every month. This year, we’re also accelerating our wholesale footprint and pushing further into international markets. We’ve already launched in Singapore, and that’s just the start of our overseas expansion plans.
What advice would you give to other up-and-coming brands hoping to enter the Naturally Good Awards in 2026?
The Naturally Good Awards are a fantastic opportunity for recognition and credibility. We were runner-up in 2024, and leveraged that accolade to secure national distribution. This was a milestone that had a bigger impact on our sales and brand profile than exhibiting alone. My advice? Don’t underestimate how powerful the award’s credibility can be for opening doors and driving growth.
Keep up with Nimbus via their socials, plus find out more on this year’s worthy winners here.