Stock Takes: How Covid sweetened Comvita’s Mānuka prospects

The claimed health benefits of Mānuka honey make it hot property in China. Photo / Supplied

When David Banfield arrived to fill the top job at the honey exporter Comvita in January 2020, the company had lost its way, he admits.

Fresh on the back of an annual $27.7 million loss and sitting on $110m worth of unsold honey, Banfield was brought in to execute a corporate turnaround.

“We’d lost our focus and we had tried to expand ... and forgot that actually, we are the global market leader in Mānuka honey and bee products.

“So, my focus in that first period was to really come back to say who we are, where we play, how we win.”

Back then the listed company was making a gross profit margin of 39 per cent, it was now achieving 60 per cent.

Its largest market remained China but it was also focusing on growing in the North American market, with a base in Santa Barbara.

Banfield flew to see staff in China in his first days as chief executive - he arrived the same day Wuhan was shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak; its seriousness and scale far from realised at the time.

What he also did not yet realise was how a pandemic would highlight the alternative medicine movement and, ultimately, benefit the company he leads.

“It’s a continuation of a longer-term trend, that people turning to nature for the answers and believing that food is the best medicine. Clearly, that benefits us.”

Comvita’s claimed health benefits and healing properties have landed it in hot water before. The Ministry for Primary Industries asked it to amend a market statement over “immunity” three years ago.

Aiming to not fall foul of regulators, while also trying to convince more consumers to buy its products, was a “very fine line” to walk, Banfield said.

Comvita still had a lot of convincing to do, with just 0.8 per cent household penetration of Mānuka honey products globally.

“So that’s really the size of the opportunity that we see in front of us, and we just need to keep telling that story and have a business model that enables us to tell that story.”

Listen to the full podcast for more from David on Comvita’s fortunes and future, and how Cyclone Gabrielle impacted the company’s operations on the East Coast.

Stock Takes is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes come out every Wednesday and are brought to you with support from Fisher Funds.