I’M A Celebrity star Kiosk Kev has started running his own drinks company after losing cash during the pandemic.
The silent shopkeeper, who is charged with running the Outback Shack on the ITV series, set up his kombucha business after a drop in fruit sales on his farm in Queensland, Australia.
Kev, whose real name is Mark Herlaar and is known as “Aussie Tarzan” Down Under, sells 16 varieties of the fermented drink for £3 a bottle on his website.
Speaking about how the business, Manifest Kombucha, evolved, Mark said: “Coronavirus was actually an opportunity wrapped in the cloak of disaster.
“After losing around 150 tonnes of fruit due to club and pub shut downs (as they were the largest uses of our limes), it made us stop and think: ‘What is the most valuable resource on this farm other than ourselves”. The answer: Water!”
He continued: “We have been making kombucha as a family for more than 20 years and decided kombucha would add far greater value to the water.
“So, we constructed a purpose-built kitchen, obtained a food licence and started to produce ‘Manifest Kombucha’.”
Kev took over the reins of the Outback Shack three years ago following Kiosk Keith’s sacking in 2018 following an accusation of arriving to work drunk and behaving inappropriately towards a female colleague.
ITV didn’t reveal the reason behind his sacking but in a statement at the time said: “Ray is no longer under contract on the show. There are no plans for him to return this year.”
However, this year, the iconic Dingo Dollar challenge, where campmates can win treats for their fellow celebrities, has been rebranded to become Deals on Wheels.
ITV producers found Mark after watching him on Survivor – the Australian version of the show in 2017.
The show saw people learning how to survive in the Samoan jungle with Mark lasting 11 days on the show before he was voted out by his fellow contestants.
It comes after MP Matt Hancock, 44, and comedian Seann Walsh, 36, entered the camp last night and won six stars during the Beastly Burrows challenge.
