Our strategy · 2026–2031
Goods on Country makes household goods with community, starting with a bed that works for remote homes. Our next chapter is about keeping those goods useful and helping more of the making, skills and decisions stay in local hands.
This plan sets out our priorities for October 2026 to September 2028 and the direction we want to take by 2031.
Ordinary household goods can be difficult to buy, move, maintain and replace in remote communities. A bed needs to suit the home and the way people live. A washing machine needs to work in local conditions and have support when something goes wrong.
We begin with those everyday needs. The Stretch Bed has grown through making and testing with community. Local knowledge keeps shaping the design, and relationships keep us connected to what happens after delivery.
Our records include 540 beds across 11 communities and 23 washers in community. The next task is to learn more consistently about their use, the work they create and the choices they make possible.
The goal was never a bigger Goods. It is a community that can collect the plastic, make the goods, and come to own the making.
Where we will put our effort
A bed matters because someone can sleep on it. We will keep improving the Stretch Bed through use in remote homes, make repairs easier and learn what people need from washing machines before extending the product range.
Over the next two years, connect each delivery to a clear repair contact and ask people about use, condition and comfort. Their experience will guide the next design and production decisions.
Making, assembling and maintaining goods can create paid work and opportunities to learn. We want that work to have fair terms, safe equipment and support that fits the place and the people involved.
Record agreed hours and payments, help local operators learn the making process and measure the full cost of their first production runs. Training, occasional tasks and ongoing employment will be reported separately.
Community organisations choose whether to take part, how beds are used or sold, who does the work and what happens next. Our role is to make those choices practical, with clear arrangements for stock, equipment, maintenance and support.
Agree these responsibilities before new work begins. Move towards local ownership where partners want it and where the people, costs, safety and asset arrangements are ready.
Goods needs reliable income and a clear understanding of what delivery and support really cost. Growth should follow useful products, repeat demand and local readiness.
Review cash and commitments every month, price production and support separately, and decide by September 2028 what can continue on confirmed income. If resources are smaller, agree a smaller scope that we can deliver well.
A useful product is the beginning of a relationship. When people can use and repair it, when making it brings fair paid work, and when local organisations choose what happens next, that relationship can help build lasting capability.
1
Start with what people want, what suits the place and who decides.
2
Turn that agreement into useful goods and safe, properly paid work.
3
Stay connected to the goods in homes. Listen to experience and improve what comes next.
4
Help partners hold more of the skills, equipment and decisions needed to keep the work going.
We will follow these changes with partners and people using the goods. Better sleep, lasting work and local ownership take more than a delivery; our reporting will show what we have learned and what still needs work.
Community organisations decide whether to participate, how goods are used or sold, and what local work should look like. People can decline a story or follow-up without losing access to a product.
We agree responsibilities for stock, equipment, pay, repairs and support before starting new work. Any transfer of ownership happens through a partner’s choice and a clear agreement about assets and ongoing responsibilities.
Local sales belong to the local seller. Training and community support need their own funding, alongside the costs of making the product.
October 2026–March 2027
Set clear responsibilities with partners, connect deliveries to repair support, establish starting measures and bring the budget and commitments into a regular review. Prepare local production only where it is requested, funded and ready.
April–September 2027
Follow the first delivery and production cycles. Measure costs, payments and product condition, listen to people using the goods and publish a first account of what we learned. Use that evidence to improve the next run.
October 2027–September 2028
Review repeat demand, local capability and the cost of continuing support. Agree which responsibilities and assets can move into local hands, and decide what can continue after time-limited funding.
By September 2031
Our ambition is for partners to hold more of the equipment, knowledge, customer relationships and decisions that make an enterprise durable. Replicate work where it is wanted and proven, while each community keeps control of its own choices.
New facilities begin when a community organisation chooses the work and the site, operator, training, safety and funding are ready. Where a facility is not ready, we can keep supplying through the existing making route within an agreed, funded scope.
October 2026–September 2028
These seven commitments give us a practical way to check the strategy. They set the standard we intend to meet for new work over the next two years. The first 90 days will establish our starting position; each review will show the result, any gap and what we will do about it.
The share of new projects with agreed decision rights, stock responsibilities and permission to share evidence.
Every new project has these arrangements before we commit.
The share of newly funded products with a recorded identity, delivery date, destination and person or organisation responsible for them.
Record every newly funded unit and reconcile deliveries each quarter.
Agreed payable hours and payments checked against what people actually received.
Check every agreed payment and resolve or explain any difference.
Time, materials, waste and delivery costs for the actual output each site makes: shred, kits or finished beds.
Measure the first 50 kits or beds at a complete making site. For an earlier-stage site, measure its first agreed batch. Review costs quarterly in the second year.
New capital and production commitments checked against agreed operator, equipment, training, safety and maintenance arrangements.
Complete the readiness check before every release of capital or production. Known unsafe conditions stop the work.
A monthly view of available cash, funding conditions, obligations and the next 13 weeks.
Reconcile and refresh the forecast every month; review differences with the board each quarter.
The cost of continuing the work, the income available and any remaining funding gap.
Establish the cost of our scope by September 2027. Decide on funded continuation or a smaller scope by September 2028.
Good records tell us what we delivered and paid for. People’s experience tells us whether the work is useful. We will agree questions and ways of collecting feedback with partners during the first 90 days, then follow these five areas.
Are the goods still being used, and what do people tell us about sleep and comfort?
Invite voluntary feedback after delivery and again as products age. Report product condition, repairs and the context people choose to share.
Do the goods suit the home and the way people live?
Listen to experiences of cleaning, moving, comfort and safety. Review incidents and show how feedback changes the product or support.
Who chose the work, and who decides what happens next?
Review decisions with partners, including use, sale, making and evidence sharing. Record custody and any agreed ownership transfer separately.
Who was paid, what did they learn and what opportunities continued?
Use payment records and agreed demonstrations of practical skills. Ask participants what the experience and next steps meant to them.
What materials were used, what became waste and how long did the goods remain useful?
Weigh production inputs and outputs, follow repairs and record the destination of waste. Measure material flows before claiming landfill diversion.
We will publish a first learning review by September 2027 and review repeat observations by September 2028 where people choose to participate. Improvement targets will follow a useful starting measure and partner agreement. Feedback is voluntary, personal information stays private and communities choose which stories are shared.
At Gamardi, young people were paid to assemble beds for their community. This film shows the people and practical work behind that delivery.
Read the Gamardi storyA community does not need a whole factory to take part. It can sell and deliver beds made elsewhere, assemble supplied kits, or choose part of the plastic-making process. The work follows what the partner wants to hold and what the next stage needs.
Making step 1
Collect and sort useful plastic. Agree a destination and how the work is funded before collecting more.
Making step 2
Process plastic into shred for a making line. This is material supply, with its own buyer and costs.
Making step 3
Turn shred into finished bed-leg kits. Canvas, poles and assembly complete the product elsewhere or on site.
Making step 4
Put the kit, canvas and poles together, check quality and arrange support for the finished bed.
The output of one site can supply the next. We will count a finished kit or delivered bed once across the network, agree the payment for each stage and keep the local seller’s receipts separate from Goods income. Pressing and cutting need a reliable supply of shred; selling beds can begin without either machine.
The delivery plan alongside capacity
The current financial plan combines buyer activity and requested stock funding. These quantities can be supplied through the existing route; new community production is not added until a site is operating and the relevant orders are agreed.
721 beds
321 paid buyer beds.
400 from stock funding requests.
12 washers and 0 fridges targeted.
No gifted beds or additional community-plant sales are included.
Conditional operating surplus: $15,482.46.
About 3.1 production days a week at the current target. The production worker is paid for the full five-day roster.
581 beds
448 paid buyer beds.
133 from stock funding requests.
120 washers and 0 fridges targeted.
No gifted beds or additional community-plant sales are included.
Conditional operating surplus: $8,489.34.
About 2.5 production days a week at the current target. The production worker is paid for the full five-day roster.
133 beds
0 paid buyer beds.
133 from stock funding requests.
300 washers and 22 fridges targeted.
No gifted beds or additional community-plant sales are included.
Conditional operating surplus: $53,971.74.
About 0.6 production days a week at the current target. The production worker is paid for the full five-day roster.
For FY27, 721 beds would use about 63% of the current line’s 1,152-kit annual target. That means a new facility needs a local reason and a funded operating plan; extra equipment is not required simply to cover this forecast.
The proposed annual Fairfax allocation is 133 beds at $750, with $250 unallocated from each $100,000. The three first-stock requests cover 400 whole beds, not 400. Their funding, timing and terms remain to be agreed.
Snapshot of the “if requests land” case, 5 October 2026. Requests and future buyer repeats are not secured orders. The organisation still has a funding gap in each of these years; more capacity does not close it. Continuing work needs evidenced demand, priced support and affordable commitments. No renewal is assumed for the period after the proposed three-year Fairfax support.
How production capacity can grow
The starting point is the existing Queensland line. This example adds one complete bed-kit line in year two and another in year three. Change the opening plan and working assumptions to see what that could make possible.
A kit still needs local assembly, delivery and support. A collecting or shredding site supplies an earlier part of the chain; it cannot be counted as another complete making line.
At 48 paid weeks: 6 kits × 5 days × 48 weeks × 80% = 1,152 kits per established line per year. Six kits a day is the finance master’s target, not measured whole-line performance. Pressing, cutting, finishing and supply must all sustain that rate.
New-line funding is assumed to start at the beginning of the selected planning year. Each new line loses the selected start-up months before production. These are editable assumptions, not agreed site dates or grant dates.
Terracotta: established lines. Sand: new lines after start-up.
Lines in place by year five
3
Production roster at full pace
15 days/week
One operator roster per line is a budgeting assumption; training, supervision and support need separate provision.
Year-five production roster hours
5,760
After commissioning, including unavailable time. Start-up staffing and training need separate provision; actual paid work comes from payroll records.
More equipment only adds usable capacity when the inputs, operator, power, repairs and next buyer are ready. Keep the slowest production stage supplied and measure complete kits leaving the line. Site costs and support must be priced before committing to this opening plan.
The current financial plan counts no community-plant sales. This capacity scenario therefore adds no revenue to it. Orders, stock funding and the organisation’s cash commitments are checked separately.
Current-line inputs reconciled to the Goods financial master, 2026-10-07. Future lines use that benchmark until their own measured rates and rosters are available.
Trade and philanthropic support can fund different parts of the work: making goods, helping local operators and keeping design, quality, repairs and relationships dependable. We will understand the full cost of each part before taking on more.
The CEO leads delivery and financial commitments. The board oversees strategy, budgets and risk. Cash and commitments are reviewed monthly, with a quarterly board review. Time-limited grants need a clear plan for what happens when they end.
Our proposed management approach is to test new work in manageable, funded steps. We have low appetite for commitments without funding, and no appetite for knowingly unsafe work, bypassing community consent or misleading reporting.
Partners review the work with us every six months. We refresh the strategy annually, bringing together their feedback, product experience, actual costs and demand. The next planned strategy review is January 2027, with an annual refresh in October 2027.