A decade ago, Uncle Tobys was a small brand name in the Australian food industry, used on a range of slow-selling oat and oat-based products. Today, the 97-year-old brand is one of the industry's fastest-growing lines. It covers 40 different products with annual retail sales of more than $300 million. A dozen new Uncle Tobys lines have appeared over the past year and there are more to come.
The force behind Uncle Tobys is ICM Australia, a privately owned food and agribusiness company controlled by Victorian oat farmer Doug Shears. Over the past 18 years Shears has built a tightly integrated food manufacturing operation, with interests in oat farming and milling, cattle and fertilisers.
