Bill Moragiannis from the much-loved Honey Dee Loukoumades truck has been making the delectable honeyed Greek donut puffs for over seven years.

The Honey Dee truck has graced “every Antipodes Lonsdale festival and every Oakleigh Glendi, as well as, Moomba, Royal Melbourne Show, and major music festivals,” he says.

When Covid hit and all events stopped, the first thing Moragiannis did was to deliver around where he lives, Point Cook.

“It was an instant hit, but we needed to have enough dough to not run out when we got the late orders, but we had dough left over to be thrown out.”

So, he began freezing the dough, and par cooking the dough “to minimise wastage.” In crisis innovation is a natural outcome.

“Friends asked me to set up a shop at various locations, however due to daily changes in restrictions and large fines being handed out during the curfew, I told them to use my par-cooked product and thus Wholesale Loukoumades was created March 2020.”

Loukoumades became a symbol of resilience for Bill Moragiannis. Photo: Supplied

Soon others were asking for his product, as they cooked during the week from their food truck and completing local deliveries on weekends.

Moragiannis was made redundant from his long-time job, undeterred by one more challenge he began to concentrate only on Loukoumades as wholesaling and deliveries ramped up.

“We rented a warehouse and parked our food truck there, introduced various food delivery apps and continued to have walk in customers.

“Part of the conditions of trading with our local council was that we only traded three nights a week due to car park restrictions.”

By 2021 the demand for wholesaling grew and new premises, Moragiannis leased a manufacturing kitchen in Hoppers Crossing and began production.

They are now a HACCP certified, Vegan certified and Halal Certified business and supply loukoumades around Melbourne, Geelong and Queensland with NSW starting soon, followed by South Australia and Tasmania.

“We had the best sales for our business in 2021 with no festivals or events and our growth has doubled again.”

Covid lockdowns, and a loss of employment were emblems of resilience for Moragiannis and his Honey Dee business. Now, to the serious work of gorging on those delectable honeyed donuts – the loukoumades.

For more Information go to honeydee.com.au