As restrictions ease and borders open, now is the perfect time for Australians to venture out and enjoy the experiences available in their own backyard.
With the gift-giving season just around the corner, BananaLab’s arrival at Coles and Woolworths across the nation could not have come at a more perfect time.
The company’s co-founders, Eric Amiel and Thomas Dufraisse, had approached several retailers, however, given the current situation with Covid-19, many of them were reluctant to begin a partnership with them until a later date.
“Thankfully, Coles and Woolworths saw our potential and the quality of our products, and were more than enthusiastic to get us on board,” they say. “We are so proud of this partnership and excited to see where it leads.
“Much like many other industries, Covid-19 did impact our business. However, we were lucky that this was mainly our B2B endeavours (we currently have corporate gift boxes on offer). So, we decided to focus our efforts on our B2C strategies and marketing, which our partnership with Coles and Woolworths are a result of.”
As lovers of adventure, travel, sports and the outdoors, Amiel and Dufraisse decided to launch BananaLab in 2017 to fill a gap for those looking to gift unique and memorable moments for their loved ones in place of purposeless or unwanted, material gifts.
The concept is simple; one gift box, thousands of hand-picked activities to choose from. Each experience gift box contains a booklet with an entire range of experiences and a voucher, which can be redeemed for any one offer.
“We make it a priority to support local economies by prioritising partnerships with local providers that offer one-of-a-kind experiences, and who we know will give their best to anyone who chooses an experience with them.
“When selecting our experience partners, we follow strict criteria of quality of service, safety and customer satisfaction. As we mentioned, supporting local has also always been a top priority for us, however, we also aim to curate a diverse range of offers to not only avoid competition amongst our partners, but also to make sure that the BananaLab experience continues to be unique for our customers.”
BananaLab is loosely translated from a French expression meaning ‘smile like a banana’. “When you are super happy and you can’t stop smiling. Not only that, but the idea behind the name goes back to our philosophy of sharing joy and gifting smiles that stretch from ear to ear (like a banana)―exactly as our gift boxes do.
“So, with ‘banana’ in reference to the smiles and ‘lab’ alluding the experiences, BananaLab seemed like the perfect name,” they enthuse.
Now more than ever, the Victorian-based start-up is in a unique position to help Australians enjoy everything our country has to offer.
“Australia has so many wonderful places to discover and we are so proud to be able to bring these experiences that the whole world dreams of discovering, to everyday Australians,” Sarah Boukobza, BananaLab’s marketing manager, says.
BananaLab is now available at Coles and Woolworths.
