How to build a business from the ground up
Fourth book shows Mānuka Health New Zealand’s growth into a global business
Early last year Kerry Paul selfpublished a book which outlined the successes of his family, much of it revolving around the lives of his grandparents George and Elizabeth Paul and a focus on raising their family in and around Te Awamutu.
Stories of a New Zealand family was his third book written following the sale of his business - and now he is publishing number four.
Paul was the founding CEO of Mānuka Health New Zealand in Te Awamutu and Going Global: Building a world-wide branded business uses real examples of how he grew and developed Mānuka Health to illustrate his points.
Mānuka Health turned Te Awamutu into a major centre for the mānuka honey industry. In nine years from 2006 the business grew to $73 million in sales per year to become a major global brand distributed to 50 countries.
By 2014 a new world-leading honey processing, laboratory and distribution centre had been opened in the Waikato town, employing 120 staff and operating more than 8000 hives.
Paul was also responsible for identifying that methylglyoxal was the ingredient that gave mānuka honey the stable anti-bacterial activity and led the charge to have an MGO rating adopted as the leading standard to market the product.
This was instrumental in giving mānuka honey credibility worldwide with export sales growing from $25m in 2006 to $550m in 2020.
He sold the business in 2015 but insists he isn’t retired.
“I’m a semi-professional sportsman and semi-professional writer,” he says.
Paul enjoys a round of golf and is keen on the fast-growing sport of pickleball.
His first book was a letter to his descendants.
“In 100 years I like to think my descendants can read it and see who Kerry Paul was,” he says.
His second and third were written together - both family histories.
Stories of a New Zealand family was the bigger project because it was the biggest side of the family, but he also wrote a book about his mother’s side and he undertook several trips around New Zealand and gave copies to relatives as gifts.
The latest is a “service to entrepreneurial New Zealanders” based on Paul’s more than 40 years of business experience, but using Mānuka Health as the example.
He says New Zealanders are great at producing something, especially based around primary industries, but lack the knowledge and expertise to take it to the global level.
Paul says an example is the latest boom product - cherries, which he says will follow the same pattern as so many other “new” products - boom, peak, decline, consolidation.
“People looking for opportunities climb aboard a new craze, but often the real work hasn’t been done,” he says.
“The local market is too small for huge growth, but global opportunities haven’t been properly explored and the product hasn’t been developed to suit overseas markets.
“We need to be better at commercialising our products and better at adding value.”
The book is designed to inspire and encourage, with 12 chapters that talk the entrepreneur through the do’s and don’ts based on experience.
Chapter 1 is an introduction and the other 11 deal with the key steps that proved successful for Mānuka Health New Zealand.
Paul says one of the basic keys is to have a strategy and to build capabilities as you go with a focus on where you want to finish.
“At Mānuka Health we made sure every day-to-day activity in the business was undertaken with the end goal in mind.
“Mānuka Health started as a basic food company operating out of a small Carlton St premises and within 10 years was a global natural health corporation producing a wide range of valued food products and advanced supplements.”
Paul hopes his latest book will bring about similar success for the next entrepreneur.
He plans to market the book himself from his website www.goglobal. co.nz and through his networks, social media and personal appearennces. It is also exclusively available at Paper Plus Te Awamutu.
The local market is too small for huge growth, but global opportunities haven’t been properly explored and the product hasn’t been developed to suit overseas markets.
Kerry Paul