Yumi and Moishy Friedman bring heimish flavor to their Australian enterprise

By David Damen, Melbourne

Yumi and Moishy Friedman started selling fish from a storefront and preparing salads in the shul kitchen in Melbourne. Today they’re sitting on a multi-million-dollar enterprise — who in Australia doesn’t have a container of Yumi’s dips in their refrigerator? While their little business has grown into the largest such product line on the continent, they still see themselves as two simple chassidic brothers just trying to make a kiddush Hashem 

Ifirst meet Moishy and Binyamin (Yumi) Friedman in Melbourne’s Adass Israel shul, engrossed in their daily learning session, having cleared their minds of their 200-plus employees at the largest dips factory in Australia and the hundred tons of dips and salads it produces every week.

But I’m not the only one to be surprised. So are many of the business contacts who meet the two chassidish brothers for the first time. And they’re even more surprised when they learn that the little home-based dips business that started in the shul’s kitchen would morph into a multi-million-dollar enterprise.

On the drive to the factory, about a half hour away from Melbourne, Moishy shares about those early days, long before the big dream and how it’s played out in ways they could never imagine.

And I have my own good fortune: “They won’t let you in,” many helpful people in the community predicted darkly when I began to inquire about a potential visit to the factory during my memorable visit down under. And they were right. The brothers are exceedingly protective of their privacy, and it’s rare that visitors are let in the door. But some generous mood overcame their secrecy, and here I was — and what I discovered there far exceeded anything I could have imagined.