Australian social enterprise set for NZ

Thankyou Group managing director Daniel Flynn. Photo/supplied

Australian social enterprise Thankyou Group is headed to New Zealand this year with its managing director Daniel Flynn speaking at next months PwC Herald Talk's event.

The company has made its name by donating 100 per cent of the profits from its retail sales to fund charitable projects in disadvantaged countries.

"We have the ability to make all that happen but the really cool part is every quarter when we give out our profits and we've raised A$5.5 million to date and impacted just over 755,000 people with access to food, water and health programmes globally," Flynn said.

Thankyou Group now has 55 staff, 46 consumer products including water, food products like muesli and muesli bars which funds food programmes, a body care range including hand wash and lotions that fund health and sanitation and a baby products range which funds maternal health programmes.

The business was founded by Flynn, his now wife Justine, and friend Jarryd Burns in 2008 when Flynn was just 19-years-old.

According to the business, every 90 seconds a mother dies in childbirth, with 99 per cent of these deaths happening in developing nations.

Globally, 2.9 million babies don't make it through their first month of life because they don't have access to basic health care, which Flynn said seemed ridiculous.

Having bootstrapped the business since it launched, Flynn said the company raised $600,000 through a crowdfunding campaign recently to launch its baby range and expand to New Zealand.

"We haven't locked in dates in New Zealand but we've been preparing for it," Flynn said.

"We have a blueprint that's working in Australia with some great results and with the potential to really make an amazing difference," he said.

"Sometimes it seems like we're a forgotten part of the world and every now and then we come out and do something the world didn't see coming in sport or entertainment or business and I think this really has a lot of potential in New Zealand to show this isn't just a one country wonder."

PwC Herald Talks - Leadership
April 5th
7.00am - 9.00am
SKYCITY Theatre
Tickets available on iTicket
Tickets - $89