All change at Ecostore
The Kiwi environmental health brand has set a global goal as it welcomes new leadership
If you think Ecostore, a company which sells environmentally-friendly cleaning, laundry and skincare products, exists just to save the planet, you’re wrong.
The state of the country’s ‘‘clean green’’ image, on which so much of its export value is based, has also reached a point where founder Malcolm Rands stopped saying it wanted to be ‘‘the greenest company from the greenest country’’ about ten years ago.
Instead, Ecostore wanted to save people, who Rands said were really bad at worrying about the future, from themselves.
‘‘The cut through from us wasn’t that we were ‘saving the planet’, which is bullshit anyhow, we’re not saving the planet, we’re actually keeping the planet so we can still live here.
‘‘If we wipe ourselves out the planet’s not going to care, it’s done this many times before.
‘‘We’re not saving the planet, we’re trying to save ourselves so that we can live on the planet: I think it’s a really big distinction to make.’’
This context is important for the 25-year-old company as it embarked on a new era with fresh leadership, and with one big goal in mind.
New managing director Pablo Kraus said this was to make Ecostore the most recognised brand for health and wellbeing for the environment, big enough that it sits next to $230 billion-plus valued Unilever on the world stage.
Or, as Rands put it: ‘‘Unilever can be number two, you need one competitor.’’
And it would be consumers who lead the wave of ethical, quality, profitable businesses.
Nearly every product and service in the world had become a commodity, Rands said, which meant consumers would differentiate between things based on what they believed in.
‘‘Consumers now are becoming the policeman with social media, naughty companies are just getting outed all the time.
‘‘It’s only starting, we’re just seeing the beginning.’’
Rand sold his remaining stake in Ecostore to the rich list Kraus family in 2015, and Pablo, who had been a director for about four years, took on the head role in May this year.
Before that, Kraus had helped grow another family business, organic food store chain Huckleberry, from three stores to 11 and was part of a rebranding there.
Kraus, who Rands had known since he was a child, had slowly been stepping into the top role at Ecostore since late last year, and was spearheading a new marketing campaign which was launching soon.
This was the first time in a long time Ecostore had talked about itself, Kraus said, and would focus on the ‘‘pitch of the future’’.
Otherwise, Ecostore had a keen focus on growing its export business, particularly in Asia.
Australia had been the company’s biggest export market for a long time, being almost the same size as its New Zealand business, but Ecostore was looking to grow China and Japan.
Kraus said it had formed a joint venture in Japan with a fashion company which also ran organic stores, and had employed export-specific staff.
Rands said the Chinese and Japanese markets each had quite different propositions, with China paranoid about safety, while Japan had a view the best products in the world were already made there.
‘‘If you’re a mum or dad in China, you’re really in a situation where you want the very best and you’ve got to be able to trust it and that’s where Ecostore has got brand New Zealand, which is trusted to begin with, and then being one of the most trusted brands in New Zealand as well. ‘‘It’s a great story.’’ Kraus said the company’s skin and kids ranges, both launched this year, had been doing really well.
Rands had always considered Ecostore products skin products, because they only used natural chemicals which were good for the skin: rejecting half of the possible chemicals they could use.
Kraus said it was important Ecostore kept to this ethos, particularly with the debate about the country’s rivers and its clean green image.
‘‘It’s a bit nerve-racking that a lot of New Zealand’s brand is actually resting on us trying to actually sort it out.
‘‘We need to make sure we keep that really high standard.
‘‘We have that clean, green image, we’re representing New Zealand on the world stage.’’
Rands would be shifting more of his attention to the Fairground Foundation, a not-for-profit established at the same time as Ecostore.
It had two projects underway, called Bumpspace and Bucket.
Bucket was an app which would basically give conservation workers a platform to raise money, while Bumpspace was a housing project which wanted to ‘‘bring the village back to the city’’.
He had total confidence in Kraus and said it was time to hand over Ecostore for some fresh ideas.
‘‘I’m really excited about continuing to understand the way that we can innovate and make new products and minimise the impact that we have on the environment,’’ Kraus said.
‘‘I want it to be Unilever, Ecostore: globally, wherever you think of it.’’
Consumers are now becoming the policemen with social media. Malcolm Rands.