Why fibre is the absolute hero for this wellness company
How does robust internet help small businesses succeed? BePure learned the hard way.
While the medical field is more technologically advanced than ever, modern life isn’t necessarily conducive to holistic human health. A lot of fresh produce is less nutritious than it was 70 years ago, for starters. Scientists attribute this to soil depletion and the fact that today’s high-yielding cultivars tend to contain fewer vitamins and minerals than plant varieties of yore.
Modern eating habits don’t help: fast food is calorierich but nutrient-poor; we’ve gone off eating offal, which is incredibly nutrient-dense; and many fashionable diets tend to leave their followers lacking in something. Micronutrient deficiencies lead to a raft of health issues.
In 2004, Hawke’s Bay-based clinical nutritionist Ben Warren noticed that New Zealanders’ general wellness seemed to be slipping. The former professional golf coach’s own struggle with health inspired him to become a nutritionist, and the nation’s apparent struggle led him to found his own natural supplements company, BePure. The company’s products include the likes of ‘Super Boost C’ (combining high-strength vitamin C with antioxidant bioflavonoids and zinc for better absorption), ‘Iron Restore’, and the ‘Everyday Wellness Pack’ – containing multivitamins, probiotics, and fish oils rich in omega-3.
Over the years, BePure has grown into a highly successful holistic wellness company with
dozens of employees across offices in both Auckland and Hawke’s Bay. As well as selling multivitamins, it operates the one-on-one BePure Clinic and women’s health brand Eve Wellness. The latter offers personalised dietary and lifestyle recommendations to women with hormonal imbalances via athome hormone testing kits. The company has already expanded into the United States and is poised to enter Australia.
In July this year, BePure shifted its headquarters to the Auckland suburb of Ponsonby. The new office’s fibre-optic cable had yet to be installed, so the company’s staff spent three weeks reliant on sluggish, inconsistent internet – a situation CEO Andrew Laloli describes as “literally tortuous”.
Laloli, who started off as an investor in BePure and has been CEO since 2014, recalls system
crashes, intolerably long waits, failed downloads, and dropped calls. “We’ve got over 30 people in our head office and when everyone’s heavily utilising the WIFI… well, let’s just say we breathed a collective sigh of relief when we finally got fibre installed in our new space.”
The experience made Laloli realise just how much BePure depended on a fast, reliable internet connection. Not only to handle day-to-day operations and growth but to safeguard its reputation as a legitimate business. He says his clients, suppliers, and buyers “simply do not have time for bad internet.”
“Expectations from both customers and partners are really high in this day and age. They expect any company operating at even a reasonable level to have this sort of infrastructure in place. For a premium business like ours, it’s even more critical.”
BePure was an early adopter of e-commerce and social media; today, the business’ marketing, customer engagement, and customer service all happen online. Cloud-based software supports BePure’s CRM, inventory management, marketing tools and platforms, reporting mechanisms, and client data security systems.
“There’s just layers and layers and layers to all that stuff and it’s all in the Cloud, which needs decent internet to run,” says
Laloli. He notes that many of New Zealand’s small-to-mediumsized businesses (SMEs) will be in a similar position.
Video conferencing, which is notoriously bandwidth-heavy, plays a crucial role in the company. Almost all BePure’s client consultations happen via video, as do its pitches to retailers. Staff in the Auckland office use video conferencing to communicate with colleagues at BePure’s Hawke’s Bay lab and warehouse, and vice versa.
It’s also become a valuable tool for ironing out snags in the supply chain, says Laloli. BePure sources ingredients for its supplements from around the world, buys packaging from Asia and works with contract manufacturers in the US – there’s plenty that can go awry.
While muddles are always best straightened out in person, that’s tricky when your business operates across borders. Laloli says a face-to-face video call is the next best thing. “So long as the calls don’t drop out,” he hastens to add. “If they do that, it makes what’s already an incredibly frustrating situation even worse.”
Laloli says fibre has become a non-negotiable part of doing business in the modern world, where Cloud-based computing and video conferencing are the norm. “It’s one of those things you take for granted and then, when you don’t have it, you realise it makes a world of difference.” Like getting enough of the vitamins and minerals your body needs.
Ask for Business Fibre. It’s how we internet now. For more information about Business Fibre, visit chorus.co.nz/business