Just Bananas - Scaling a Roadside Idea with AI
Just Bananas sells farm-fresh bananas from roadside trailers across Ipswich on an honesty system, and is now using computer vision to tell good bananas from bad.
Start up Overview
Just Bananas sells second grade bananas that are perfectly good to eat but rejected by supermarkets for the way they look. Seven trailers sit on suburban roadsides across Ipswich, restocked daily from North Queensland farms and open every day of the year. Each one operates on an honesty system, where customers pick their own bananas, weigh them, and pay in cash or by card.
Tony and his co-owner, Brad Finch, built a model that works at both ends. Growers sell fruit that would otherwise be left in the paddock, and families get one of Australia’s most popular fruits through a cost-of-living crisis.
Tony Trafford
Roadside banana stalls were not a new idea in Queensland. Some had run for more than a decade, one trailer at a time, and nobody had tried to run them properly. Tony worked out that with the right supply chain, sites and brand, the same simple idea could work as a real retail network.
He tested it in Cairns, co founding Banana Brothers with Brad Finch in 2021, then opened Just Bananas in Ipswich in February 2025 to see whether the model could travel. Six months into the Impact10x Venture Builder the answer was clear. The fleet grew across South East Queensland at a speed Tony calls exponential, each new trailer paid for by the one before it and no outside capital raised.
A glimpse into the future
Just Bananas is preparing the model to be handed on. More trailers are already in build, and the aim is to package the whole operation, the supply, the siting, the branding and the daily running, into something a local operator can run in their own territory. Brisbane City is next with a six month trial, followed by the Gold Coast, North Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
Year Founded: 2025
Milestones
2021
Tony and Brad Finch begin selling bananas from roadside trailers in Cairns, proving that a model everyone else ran as a sideline could be run as a business.
Feb 2025
Just Bananas founded in Ipswich. Seven trailers follow across seven sites
Nov 2025
Joins the Impact10x Venture Builder.
Works with Hillary Watson on public relations and HR, and with Dr Samantha Horsman’s team on computer vision models that grade fruit condition inside the trailers.
As of now
Seven trailers operating across Ipswich, restocked daily, open every day of the year. More trailers in build and new territories in preparation. The fleet has expanded across South East Queensland without external capital, each trailer funded by the one before it.
For Investors
To get in touch with our portfolio founders please contact us via our Investor page.
