Brand Tas

When David Meredith began promoting the idea of luxury tourism and hospitality in Tasmania, investors were wary. More than wary. The answer was no.

When he persevered and opened the Islington Hotel, it didn’t fit. It wasn’t big, generic or cheap. Instead it was small, unique and premium, tapping into what more and more people around the world were beginning to understand: that the “different-ness” of Tasmania was its key asset.

David wondered how best to lure people into experiencing it as a tourist, and co-founded Tas’Mania: introducing people to the state by inviting them to taste it. He placed premium Tasmanian food products in premium Hong Kong supermarkets. “It was scary at first,” he says. “We knew nothing about logistics and pricing and retailing.”

His breakthrough contract with a major supermarket took three years of hard work and investment.

“We love the state and handle produce that is grown, raised and produced in Tasmania amid the purity of the waters, air and environment. But success is mostly about the Tasmanians, the authentic backstories of Tasmania – the people behind the brands and their stories, often generational and always exceptional. It makes us truly unique.”