Green Business: Commonsense Organics growing strong

Commonsense Organics co-owner Marion Wood. Photo / Cook Strait News.

Owners of Wellington stores Commonsense Organics are expanding their business and believe organic foodstuffs can now be properly considered an essential rather than a luxury.

Co-owner Jim Kebbell says sales - 5 per cent of which are online - have increased at an average of 12 per cent over the last three years, calling for the family business to expand.

The latest site Kebbell and wife Marion Wood have found is part of a mall redevelopment in the Wellington suburb of Johnsonville around 300m in size.

"It takes a lot of gestation time. We haven't been able to sign a deal yet because the landlord is being a bit cagey", says Kebbell.

He attributes the rise in sales to a combination of increasing awareness of personal health, environmental reasons and taste.

"There is a sense in which people think we're a luxury item, but we're not.

"If they've decided to buy at our shops they're doing it out of conviction. The 'boutiquey' feel is dying now [and] organic foods are treated much more as normal groceries.

"I don't think it's any longer considered to be a preserve for alternative lifestyles or hippies," he says.

Kebbell says he has seen a lot more organic and specialist wholesalers begin trading since the first store opened in 1991.

Inorganic food, he says, especially hydroponically grown produce sold at centralised chain supermarkets lacks some nutrients.

"One of the reasons people buy organic food and continue buying it is your body likes it. The golden rule is: if you do like it, it's probably quite good for you."

Initially, one-third of the store's sales were fresh produce, some of which came from the Kebbell-Woods own farm. And one of their highest selling products are seeds and seedlings.

Today, maps in their stores identify the origins of their produce which is mainly from three suppliers including the country's first organic wholesaler, Chantal Wholefoods, owned by Peter Alexander.

"They don't have to pour a cocktail of poisons in case a nasty problem is lurking."

International organic consultant Mark Levick says the organic produce business is progressive in terms of farming and ensuring a positive contribution as a sequester of CO2 rather than contributing to carbon emissions.

Levick says although New Zealand contributes only 0.3 per cent to the global CO2 emissions, to accept this would be short-term thinking. He thinks that New Zealand's economy will eventually benefit from producing organic.

"We actually have to change our behaviour and adopt organic farming. And long-term the international market will recognise that. As long as Australia isn't doing it, we could get our way in there."

Kebbell says there is a list of staff waiting to join the 73 employees already working at their four stores in the Wellington and Hutt area.

But he says the jobs are unlike those at centralised chain supermarkets because staff come with strong accountancy and administration skills to manage the relationships the business has with almost 800 suppliers.

"When we advertise a management job all the second hand car salesmen turn up, as well as managers at the average supermarkets. All they usually have to do is show up at 8am and open the door."

Despite this, Kebbell says some of their staff gain language skills while working at the stores, as their policy includes employing migrants and refugees.

Kebbell says this was evident in the nuclear physicist from China who worked as a sales operator.

"There's quite a community atmosphere rather than a commercial atmosphere. That's one of our problems; that the staff spend a lot of time talking to the customers.

He says his staff are knowledgeable and trained to inquire on behalf of the customers coming into their stores.

"Supermarket staff will usually know where things are but not what they are."