bHoney is no more.
It was withdrawn from retail sale in Australian supermarkets in the second half of 2025.
News of the retreat, however, wasn’t confirmed until Bega Cheese Limited released its financial results.
Bega said revenue in its spreads business had been “ in slight decline due to deletion of retail honey.”
The Bega Cheese Limited honey brand first appeared on Australian supermarket shelves in May 2020. Bega also announced that it was backing a project developing a varroa-mite early detection bee hive.
It was called the ‘Purple Hive Project’ because the hives were painted the same purple colour as the bHoney label. And purple is honey bees favourite colour.
The project was the brainchild of advertising agency – Thinkerbell – and written up in a story on an ad industry web site in early July 2020.
According to a Thinkerbell executive - Tom Wenborn, the agency had helped build the B honey brand and Purple Hive Project “from the ground up”.
He said was it inspiring to help Bega protect the viability of the honey industry in Australia.
The report quoted Adam McNamara, executive general manager, of Bega Foods as saying that they realised the varroa mite was a significant threat when the company began to develop B honey.
“It was clear to us that we needed to invest in technology and innovation to support the future of our honeybees, Australian beekeepers, and in turn, Australian agriculture.”
The project generated a lot of good publicity for its developers, Vimana Tech, and Bega.
But by the time the first hives were being set up (e.g. in the Port of Townsville) in early 2023, the project was already redundant.
Varroa destructor arrived in Newcastle in early 2022 and, despite a massive initial campaign to contain it, spread quickly throughout NSW, and is now widespread in S E Qld and Victoria.
Vimana Tech’s unlucky timing with the Purple Hive Project’ appears to have had fatal results. The company has recently been de-registered.
Bega’s unhappy experience with the project doesn’t really explain, however, why the company has pulled the pin on bHoney.
The product was very well-presented, with an attractive and distinctive packaging label design, and anecdotally appeared to be received well by consumers.
Indeed, at one early stage bHoney is believed to have been tracking at above a 10% segment share at Coles.
In any event the company is continuing to sell both bHoney min jars and its Zoosh branded honey mini-packs through its wholesale/ food service division.
The Zoosh brand was inherited as part of the $450million dollar deal with Kraft/Mondelez that saw Bega take on much of the Kraft and Heinz business in Australia ( including Vegemite).
Bega also picked up a range of Kraft brand food service products in the deal, including the Zoosh brand of mini-portion packs.
Zoosh honey is packaged in Australia at the former Kraft factory in Port Melbourne.
It is amongst the cheapest portion packed honeys in the Australian market and thought to use imported honey.
For more information go to www.bhoneyaustralia.com.au
https://campaignbrief.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Purple-Hive-Images-1.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDbSSpX9PTw