A homegrown Tasmanian success story is gaining national attention, with healthy food chain Liv Eat earning three nominations at the 2026 Franchise Industry Awards.
The Tasmanian-founded brand has been nominated for Franchisor of the Year in the under-21-units category – a significant milestone as the business continues to grow beyond the island.
Two Tasmanian locations are also in the spotlight, with the Campbell Town and Sorell stores both nominated for Franchisee of the Year in the health and wellness category.
Liv Eat’s communications manager Alice Scott said the recognition was particularly meaningful for the brand.
“This is the first year Liv Eat has been nominated for the national awards run by the Franchise Council of Australia,” she told Pulse.
“Those two stores are among our newest in Tasmania, but they’re fantastic representatives of our brand – from how they run their stores to their operational performance and customer service.”
“They have so many good reviews, super busy stores, and they do a really great job, so we’re really happy to see them being celebrated and platforms.”
The Campbell Town store, run by franchisee Sam Ryan and his business partner Will Daking, has become a standout performer since opening just over two years ago.
“I was really excited and proud to be nominated,” Ryan told Pulse.
“It’s nice to be recognised, especially on a national spectrum for all the hard work that’s gone into opening a business.”
The store has grown 15-20% from its first year and employs about 35 staff.
In a town of just over 1,000 people, he said keeping staff was one of the biggest challenges.
“We’ve had really good retention of staff there … we haven’t lost too many. We probably still have 80% of our team working with us from when we opened two years ago,” he said.
He said Liv Eat being nominated in national awards like the Franchise Industry Awards was helping put Tasmania on the map in the food and drink scene.
“Tasmania’s not that well known on a national sense from sort of a hospitality perspective,” he said.
“So I think it’s a huge step for business for Tasmania and really big step for Liv Eat moving forward, slowly branching into that mainland market.”
“It’s a huge leap forward for a smaller business competing in a big market.”
Ryan said January was their busiest month on record, benefiting from holiday travellers passing through the central Tasmanian town.
Liv Eat is celebrating its 20th birthday this year after starting when three university friends opened their first store in Hobart’s Elizabeth Street Mall.
The company now operates 18 stores across Tasmania and mainland Australia, including locations at Melbourne, Sydney, Hobart and Launceston airports.
Two more mainland stores are planned for this year.
Scott said the company employs more than 500 people across all stores and aims to keep expanding nationally while maintaining its mission to “make the world a healthier, happier place, one customer at a time”.
The awards ceremony will be held in June.
