It began trading as a flour milling company in Auckland over 100 years ago. Today Healtheries of New Zealand Ltd is a sophisticated national and international marketer of branded consumer health foods and Biolane Green Lipped Mussel extract and colostrum products, achieving export sales of $21.5 million in 2005.
General Manager of the international business, Brian Dewar, says Healtheries’ export growth strategy revolves around the sale and marketing of branded consumer health food products into Australia and South East Asia, and the sale of Biolane Green Lipped Mussel extract products and colostrum products to manufacturing and marketing businesses globally.
“Our goal has been to get to the point where we are consistently growing international sales by more than 10 per cent annually and we’ve grown 20 and 15 per cent respectively in the past two years,” says Mr Dewar.
Healtheries’ consumer health food business accounted for about 66 per cent of export revenue last year and includes the sale of a range of dietary supplements, herbal fruit and functional teas, wheat and gluten free products and children’s healthy snacks. This business has focused on selling into Australia’s two main supermarket chains.
“Australia’s proximity and market size, which at $600 million sales annually is five times the domestic market, and its growth rate of eight to ten per cent annually, make it the logical first choice for a New Zealand based manufacturing and marketing health food business,” says Mr Dewar.
In addition Healtheries has focused on a number of relatively close South East Asian countries that have young but growing health food markets.
Healtheries’ export strategy for its consumer business is narrow and focused in terms of target market, channel and product range. Mr Dewar says this is in contrast to the domestic market strategy where Healtheries is a trusted, 100-year-old household brand name and dominant market leader in a wide range of health food categories.
"To compete in these crowded, competitive consumer export markets we’ve had to devise a tailored strategy which has been to develop and promote products that can lead within specialist niche health categories, which are linked with global consumer health trends, and have a genuine point of difference.”
Healtheries opened an Australian office to build relationships with the key supermarket buyers and to develop a full understanding of the Australian health food market. This has enabled it to identify opportunities, develop consumer-relevant leading edge products and work with the key retail partners to gain product listings.
“We’ve got about 150 products listed in Australia currently and have had some real success stories lately, such as the Kidscare brand which is both a supplement brand and a healthy lunchbox snack brand for children,” says Mr Dewar.
New product innovation is continuous and Healtheries has a proactive programme to track and respond to global consumer health trends. Mr Dewar says the fastest growing health categories are currently bones and joints, slimming, energy, stress and sleep.
The other arm of Healtheries export strategy is the sale of Biolane Green Lipped Mussel extract products and colostrum products to marketing and manufacturing businesses.
“The Biolane Green Lipped Mussel Extract business started for Healtheries in 1999 with the purchase of the McFarlane marine ingredients business,” explains Mr Dewar. “Healtheries identified that there was further global potential for sales of a unique New Zealand ingredient within the large and rapidly growing joint health supplement category. Our first step was to brand it ‘Biolane’ to distinguish it from other generic products and ensure all future intellectual property from research was protected.”
Biolane is now sold in 24 countries. In response to health trends Healtheries also combines the green lipped mussel extract with other ingredients such as Omega 3, which Mr Dewar says is currently very popular and of scientifically proven health benefit.
Healtheries sells its colostrum products to China, where it’s developed a market-leading strong relationship with one Chinese distribution and marketing partner, who sells just that one category of product.
“Our distributor was one of the pioneers of this category in China. Today Chinese mothers purchase Healtheries colostrum products as a food supplement for their children to help boost immunity.”
Healtheries employs 270 staff in offices in New Zealand and Australia, including a team of food technologists. It’s a market-led business, says Mr Dewar, utilising both in-house and outsourced manufacturing. He says staff are dedicated and have the ability to respond quickly by having the flexibility and autonomy to develop strategies and products to meet global health trends.
“It’s vitally important that you use market intelligence gathering to pick trends; you can’t always be followers, you’ve got to be a leader as well.”
And he says it’s critical exporters keep an eye on both top line and bottom line growth.
“Healtheries is investing to grow our exports, but we expect a return from that. Australia is an example of a market where we’ve invested a lot of time and money and are now growing revenue and also profitability.”
Image: Healtheries colostrum store in China.
Contact:Brian DewarGeneral Manager International BusinessHealtheries of New Zealand LtdPhone: +64 9 573 3730Email: briand@healtheries.co.nzWebsite: www.healtheries.co.nz
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