From Braddon Kitchen to National Shelves: How One Canberran Turned a Fermentation Obsession Into a Six-Figure Business

Three years ago, Priya Mehta was making kimchi in a 12-square-metre kitchen and selling 40 jars a week at the Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston. This Saturday, her company Lyra & Co. Ferments ships to more than 200 independent grocers across four states, and she has just signed a $180,000 supply agreement with a Canberra-based health food distributor to place product in ACT government workplace cafeterias from September 1.

The timing matters. Consumer spending in the capital is under pressure — national household budgets are squeezed by two years of elevated interest rates — yet premium fermented foods have bucked the trend. The Australian fermented food and beverage market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2025 and is tracking toward $2.1 billion by 2029, according to IBISWorld figures published in March. Mehta identified that Canberra's above-average household income, roughly $120,000 median for couple households in 2025 census data, makes it an unusually resilient test market for premium food products.

A Production Move That Changed the Calculus

The inflection point came in October 2024, when Mehta moved production from her home into a 180-square-metre leased facility on Lonsdale Street in Braddon, accessed through a commercial kitchen licensing arrangement with the ACT Health Regulation branch. The move cost $34,000 in fit-out and equipment, partly funded through a $15,000 Business Connect grant administered by the ACT Government's Access Canberra small business support program. A further $10,000 came from the Canberra Innovation Network's seed funding stream, which targets food-tech and agri-food ventures.

With certified production capacity, Mehta could approach Supabarn — the Canberra-owned supermarket chain with stores in Nicholls, Gungahlin and Tuggeranong — and that relationship, formalised in February 2025, gave Lyra & Co. the retail credentialing that larger distributors require before they will return a call. The Supabarn arrangement generates approximately $4,200 in monthly wholesale revenue, a modest but critical anchor for the business.

The broader context is worth noting. Meta's recent crackdown on AI-generated impersonation accounts has rattled small producers who rely on social media to reach customers without agency budgets. Mehta pivoted her digital strategy six months ago, cutting paid social by 40 percent and redirecting that spend into in-person sampling at the Gorman Arts Centre farmers market and a monthly fermentation workshop series she runs from the Braddon facility at $65 per head. The workshops now bring in between $3,200 and $4,800 per month and function as both revenue and marketing.

What the Numbers Actually Show

Lyra & Co. turned over $212,000 in the financial year ending June 30, 2026 — up from $74,000 in FY2024. Margins remain tight. The cost of goods sold runs at about 38 percent of revenue, with glass packaging and freight the two largest cost inputs. Mehta has been in discussions with a South Australian supplier about a shift to certified-compostable flexible pouches, which she estimates would cut packaging costs by 22 percent but require $28,000 in rebranding and tooling.

She is not alone in facing that crossroads. The ACT's small food manufacturing sector — around 340 registered businesses, per Access Canberra's 2025 business registry data — is watching whether AI-driven demand for industrial land around Fyshwick and Mitchell will compress leasing options and push rents higher. The Braddon space Mehta leases runs at $32 per square metre per month; comparable Mitchell units are already quoting $38 to $41.

For other Canberra food entrepreneurs watching the Lyra & Co. trajectory, the practical lesson is straightforward. The Canberra Innovation Network's next small business cohort opens for expressions of interest on July 21, and Access Canberra's Business Connect program runs free one-on-one advisory sessions from its offices in the City Renewal Authority precinct on Mort Street. Mehta used both, and she credits the Mort Street sessions specifically with helping her structure the September distributor agreement correctly. The product, she says, was always good enough. The paperwork took work.