This month, Bondi café owners James Meek and Cliff Baskin have announced their cult Bennett St Dairy cookie dough will be launching into over 600 Woolworths nationwide.
The success of their side hustle, born from what was an extremely desperate time for most small businesses, especially hospitality, continues to astound the two Bondi locals.
“To have Woolworths get behind our small Aussie cookie dough product has been unreal,” Bennett St Dairy co-founder James Meek said. “From our first phone call back in early 2021, until now, they have been extremely helpful and supportive. Taking a small operation selling 2,000 rolls of cookie dough per week to something shifting over 10 tonnes of the stuff nationwide is no simple switch.”
Woolworths category manager, James MacMahon, said the supermarket is always searching to promote local Australian products on their shelves.
“When we came across Bennett St Dairy’s delicious cookie dough and their amazing backstory, we were confident our customers would love it just as much as we do,” MacMahon said. “In what have been, and continue to be, particularly tough times for many small businesses around Australia, we’re proud to be a part of the journey and growth of this local family business.”
In what began in March 2020, following COVID-19 lockdown orders in Sydney, Meek and Baskin came up with the idea of selling leftover cookie dough from what was their weekend food prep fridge. Their instore thick and gooey chocolate chip cookies already had a strong following throughout Bondi, consistently selling well over 400 cookies per week from their café Bennett St Dairy on Bondi Road.
With the café closed, the co-founders took stock of their current situation.
“The cookie dough was essentially all dressed up with nowhere to go,” Meek said.
They couldn’t bring themselves to throw it out: “So we thought, why not put it up on Instagram, and see if anyone’s interested in buying it to bake at home.”
Within two hours they had sold 100kg worth of dough. Whatever was leftover in the fridges was well and truly gone. The product went viral on social media and the guys were scrambling to meet the demand.
From there, this small Bondi family-owned cookie business has gone on to collaborate with major, iconic, International and Australian brands such as Ben & Jerrys and Darrell Lea.
In addition to the national roll out into Woolworths, their cookie dough can already be found on the shelves of over 200 independent retailers throughout Australia.
Bennett St Dairy’s cookie dough flavours Original Choc Chip (RRP: $13) and White Chocolate & Macadamia (RRP: $13) are now available in 600 Woolworths stores Australia-wide. 500g of their fresh, gooey, chewy and indulgent cookie dough makes anywhere from 8 regular to 1 giant cookie.