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VKA Australia
Eucalypt forest in the Gold Coast hinterland at golden hour, the country VKA Australia draws on.

VKA® Australia

Australian on the bench,
made in Southport.

Run by Australians in Southport, Queensland, developing custom flavours since 2002.

Read in one Australian business day. No contract to start.

Why we are here

“Flavour for Australia has to be developed and made in Australia. 23 years at the Southport site.”

We develop custom flavours for the food and drink of Australia and New Zealand. A flavourist on our Southport team reads every brief within one Australian business day, scopes the fit, and stays with it through development.

We work with food and beverage makers across Australia and New Zealand. New product, reformulation, a single top-note refinement or a full beverage system. Bring us what you have and what you want it to taste like.

The work is Australian end to end: developed, trialled and made in Southport for the food and drink of Australia and New Zealand.

Our story

23 years on the Southport bench.

Spotted gum in an open Gold Coast hinterland paddock at golden hour, the Queensland country behind the Southport bench.
2002

VKA Australia opens in Southport

VKA Australia opens its bench on the Gold Coast, in Southport, Queensland. The same site we still work from today.

Today

Australia's flavour bench

Developed and made in Southport by an Australian team. 23 years on the ground here, custom flavours for makers across Australia and New Zealand.

Two VKA Australia flavourists evaluating smelling strips at the Southport bench.

The founder

Victor Koh.
Where VKA Australia began.

Victor Koh founded VKA Australia in Southport, Queensland in 2002, on one conviction. A flavour house earns its place by listening, formulating and refining until the taste is right for the people it is made for.

The bench is in Southport, and it has been Australian from the first brief.

Our facility

Bench, application kitchen and plant, one Southport site.

The flavour development bench, the application work and the manufacturing plant sit at one site in Southport, Queensland. R&D, applications and manufacturing under the one roof, so a sample that smells right on the bench can be made and shipped from the same address.

A polished-stainless 200 L jacketed processing tank in the VKA Southport pilot-scale production room, a flavourist beside it reading a clipboard.
A wooden bench rack at VKA Southport holding eighteen 30 mL amber sample bottles in three neat rows of six.
A clean section of the VKA Southport finished-goods warehouse with three stretch-wrapped pallets of labelled bottles stacked side by side, a stainless forklift parked beside them.
“That combination is the point.”

VKA Australia

Southport, Queensland

What we hold to

What we hold to.

A VKA Australia flavourist weighing a compound on an analytical balance at the Southport bench.
01

Precision

Every formulation is precise. Every batch is consistent. Quality is the starting point, not a goal we are working towards.

A GC-MS instrument in the VKA Southport analytical lab, sample vial loaded in the autosampler tray, ready for a flavour-component run.
02

Flavour science

We put real work into research and sensory science. Better tools, deeper understanding of how flavour actually behaves in a finished product on a Queensland shelf.

A VKA Australia flavourist at the Southport bench with a notebook and brief, in a quiet working moment.
03

Direct access

Send a brief, get a real flavourist on the line inside one business day. The same flavourist stays on the brief through the development that follows. No contract to start the conversation.

A QC inspector at the VKA Southport plant checking a labelled finished-goods bottle against the spec sheet on a clipboard.
04

Documentation

Documentation aligned to the Food Standards Code on every brief we ship, with honest counsel where the recipe meets the regulation.

The Australian team

The team behind the Southport bench.

VKA Australia is run by an Australian team across flavour development, application, regulatory, commercial and operations.

Three VKA Australia flavourists in a working huddle around a prototype sample bottle at the Southport bench.

How we work

How we work with you.

Four plain steps, the same on every brief, applied here in Southport.

A flavourist's hand sketching a target profile on a flavour wheel diagram beside an open brief at the VKA Southport bench.
01

Read the brief

Send us your application, target profile, format, regulatory context and timeline. A real flavourist on our team reads it inside one Australian business day and replies.

A VKA Australia flavourist pipetting essence from an amber bottle at the Southport compounding bench.
02

Formulate

Our flavourists build a profile to match the brief, using formulation work and sensory science developed on the Southport bench.

A VKA Australia flavourist holding a smelling strip to the nose, evaluating a prototype at the Southport bench.
03

Test and refine

Sensory panels, application trials, stability work. We iterate until the flavour is right in the finished product, not just on a smelling strip.

Filled and labelled flavour bottles moving along the capping line at the VKA Southport plant, ready for finished-goods packing.
04

Make and ship

Production-ready specifications, documentation aligned to the Food Standards Code, ongoing QA support from the same Southport site. Same taste, every batch.

Where we work

Australia and New Zealand,
from one Southport site.

VKA Australia is based in Southport, Queensland. The bench, the people, the samples and the plant all sit here. We serve food and beverage makers across Australia and New Zealand from this one address.

A Queensland cane paddock near Bundaberg at late golden hour, long warm light across the rows, a working Australian landscape behind the Southport bench.

Southport, Queensland

VKA Australia. Bench, applications, plant.

Developed and made in Southport by an Australian team. Serving food and beverage makers across Australia and New Zealand from one site since 2002.

Bring us a brief

Send us a brief.

New product or reformulation, a top-note refinement or a full beverage system. Send what you have. A real flavourist on our Southport team reads it inside one Australian business day. No contract to start the conversation.

Read in one Australian business day. No contract to start.