son who ranked number two – Flora & Fauna founder Julie Mathers.  Flora & Fauna has always had a strong customer proposition. It was one of the first local, eco-friendly marketplaces to cater directly to a conscious customer, and has always prided itself on being a part of the sustainability community. Julie Mathers started the eco-friendly pureplay in 2014, topped our 2019 and 2021 lists, and announced she had resigned from her position as chief executive last month: one year after selling the business to BWX.  “F&F is a great business and platform for purpose, and I am so proud of what we and the team have created. Now is the right time for me to go do something different and keep driving change,” Mathers told Inside Retail at the time.  According to Mathers, one of the things that made the business resonate with its customers was that it always stayed true to its purpose and values. “As a result of that, we have a really strong community [of customers] who want to be a part of the Flora & Fauna family, and love what we do. They are proud to shop with us,” Mathers told Inside Retail.  Because of this, Mathers turned to the ‘Flora & Fauna Family’ of shoppers when it came to finding a way to market the business in an authentic way. Traditionally, Flora & Fauna had avoided using influencer marketing as Mathers only wanted to work with people who actually bought products from the business. “I decided in mid-2021 that we should [instead] engage our own community and look for everyday people who shop with us – that was a key criteria – and who would love to talk about Flora & Fauna,” Mathers said.  “We didn’t care if they had 200 followers or 200,000: We wanted people who live and breathe our values. We found 15 ambassadors who are now a part of the team and who have been amazing at creating content and giving us feedback.” Flora & Fauna also launched its first commercial on television last year – a large step in reaching a mainstream audience as more Australians embrace an eco-conscious attitude.  “For the last couple of years we have seen more people adopt a more conscious lifestyle,” Mathers said.  “It can be the smallest of things – such as using a reusable coffee cup – but small changes are important. As we’ve seen what we do become more mainstream, we knew we needed to reach more people and let as many people as possible know about Flora & Fauna. “It really drew a line in the sand for Flora & Fauna [and they’ll] absolutely keep building on it.” Taking a stand on plastic Last year, Mathers didn’t settle with taking only its customers on a journey of sustainable shopping: it decided it would take its suppliers along for the ride, declaring it would no longer accept products that are sent using unnecessary plastic. As part of the ‘Take it Back’ scheme, suppliers that send products to Flora & Fauna in plastic are given a warning to adopt a more sustainable approach and if changes are not made, the plastic is sent back to the supplier to manage. The initiative isn’t about shaming suppliers, Mathers said, but about educating them and providing solutions.  “It was really well received. So many suppliers reached out to us for help and advice, and we were very careful to say we wanted better when it came to packaging, but also to give solutions,” Mathers said.  “I always say to my team, ‘don’t give me a problem, give me a solution,’ and that’s the approach that we took.”