Boom in eco-beauty products by NZ firms

Annie and Victoria Porter of Nellie Tier were approached by MTV Awards. Photo / NZ Herald

Next month green household cleaners-maker Ecostore becomes the latest Kiwi company to launch natural skincare products for export.

With the myriad of brands already available - Living Nature, Trilogy, Pacifica Skincare, Les Floralies - you could be forgiven for thinking it was taking a chance in a saturated market.

But the demand for environmentally friendly, natural beauty products is a global trend that shows no signs of slowing, industry players say.

The increasing value of homegrown Kiwi skincare brands is evident in the recent sales of Trilogy - to 42Below founder Geoff Ross' scented candle company Ecoya for $10 million in September - and Kerikeri-based Living Nature, which sold a 50.1per cent stake to publicly listed health products exporter New Image in November.

Smaller companies are exploiting the gap left by the lumbering multinational cosmetic companies, which still have a lot invested in chemical formulations, Ecostore founder Malcolm Rands says.

But it will only be a matter of time before they too enter the "ecofield". He says within 15 years only eco-products will be available. Ecostore is already an experienced exporter, deriving about half of its income from sales to Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Its new skincare range will be sold through retailers such as the the 300 Duane Reade drugstores in Manhattan. Its American product is now made under licence by its US partners, who have been "screaming out" for the range, Rands says.

The Cosmetic Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA) says New Zealand exports about $110m worth of cosmetics annually. Up to 40 per cent is natural brands.

Industry body Natural Products New Zealand estimates its sector in total is now worth about $1billion, up from $760m in 2007.

Beauty products are a growing part of that, executive director Michelle Palmer says. Worldwide, there is a switch from chemical-based substances to plant extract-oriented solutions with a sustainability story, she says.

Trilogy launched in 2002 off the back of its signature product, certified organic rosehip oil. It now exports up to 80 per cent of its production.

Every week a new niche brand comes out worldwide and Trilogy competes by focusing on functionality, director and co-founder Sarah Gibbs says.

It has also been careful to position the brand to appeal to a wide range of export markets.

"I do think we haven't even touched the surface in terms of our potential for export."

Les Floralies managing director Danvers Devereaux's mother started the company in 1988 when "I think it was just us and Crabtree and Evelyn from England".

Australia is Les Floralies' largest export market but it also sells in several other countries and business is growing.

A key characteristic of its Great Barrier Island Bee Company and Matakana Valley brands is its "farm gate-to-jar" approach, and Devereaux works closely with local beekeepers and olive growers. It is researching how to gain some form of accreditation, because proving your natural credentials is becoming more important, he says.

Being certified "natural" or "organic" is still a minefield, CTFA executive director Garth Wyllie says.

The International Standards Organisation is working on a global standard for both terms. "Theoretically any mineral is natural but you do run the risk that some minerals are potentially harmful."

But not everyone is rushing to be an export success story. Boutique Auckland skincare business Nellie Tier was approached two years ago by the MTV Awards to put its products into celebrity goodie bags.

But it turned it down, taking what it still believes was good advice - that the quickest way to kill a brand is to generate publicity without the infrastructure to back it up.

"Very reluctantly we turned it down and so we've been cautious since then," sales and marketing manager Victoria Porter-Andrews says.

The business, started by Victoria's mother Annie Porter in her kitchen seven years ago, sells is Australia and the US and is launching an online store this month. It plans to export to China and Taiwan this year too.