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Market Expansion

Can you tell us a bit about the background of Antipodes? Did you always have global ambitions?

Antipodes® is a Scientific Green Beauty™ company from New Zealand creating award-winning premium skincare from results-driven natural ingredients. Fifteen years ago, I was searching for natural skincare that offered the same benefits as conventional skincare – but using pure New Zealand ingredients that were independently and scientifically validated. 

My background is in science, innovation, and natural health, so I understand how to bridge the gap between natural and prestige formulations. Our high-performing ingredients are sourced from New Zealand nature and our formulations are tested using in-vitro scientific investigations and clinical trials – which means our products are not only beautiful to use, but they genuinely work. 

Since launching in 2006, we’ve remained committed to our green beauty ethos which means onshore production in New Zealand, sustainably sourced ingredients, recyclable packaging, and independent verification of our organic, vegan, and vegetarian products. 

That unique approach has earned Antipodes® devotees and awards worldwide. I never doubted we would go global – and thanks to hard work and innovation, we now sell in over 40 markets on four continents. Our aim is to be the number one plant-powered scientific green beauty company in the world!

Why did you choose the US and Canada as the next location for expansion?

It’s always really important to check in with each of your export markets to see if everything is going as well as you expect. Our Canadian sales weren’t reaching our expectations for the market size and category growth, so we reviewed our operations there and decided to change distributor. 

For the USA, we had been receiving a lot of market pull – enquiries, requests, media – so it was time to explore the options for market entry.

At a broader level, clean skincare is a growing beauty trend in the US and Canada, as the eco-conscious and style-savvy alike discover the benefits of green beauty and make the move to more sustainable choices. In short, consumers increasingly want to ‘walk the talk’. Antipodes occupies a special niche where our skincare is not only green, with certified vegan and organic products, but validated by science – and that’s something we look forward to bringing more of to these markets in the months ahead.

To what extent did Covid-19 impact your expansion into the US and Canada?

If anything, it sped it up! With everyone in New Zealand in lockdown during March, calls with markets to onboard our partners continued at a rapid pace. We had planned several onboarding trips to market, but instead we assembled virtual cross-functional teams and managed everything this way.

We found that our partners were all very willing to engage – and of course, they were in a similar situation themselves, so we were all in the same boat.

With our new distributor in Canada, we participated in the virtual tradeshow CHFA East, which was a new experience for our team. With a bit of creative thinking from the organisers, these events have been able to continue, which is wonderful to see. It’s (almost) business as usual. 

During this time, we also took the opportunity to improve our ecommerce capability and relaunch our website as a key part of our launch into the USA. That was launched in June, thanks to the work of our team here in Wellington.

What does your team structure and operations look like given you can’t really travel at the moment?

We spend more time at the office, but the core of our operation hasn’t changed. We talk regularly to our distributors and retailers, whether it be by virtual or physical means. 

Travel to market is key to maintaining relationships and gaining real insight into how the market functions. While we can’t do that everywhere at the moment, there are definitely ways around it – we’re relying on video calls and asking our partners to share photos and more detailed information about consumers and the retail environment. Thanks to modern technology we don’t have to compromise those key relationships and miss out on valuable intel.

Our New Zealand market is incredibly important to us, so we’ve been ensuring that the team gets out and about to our Kiwi retailers to understand how our local customers shop and get inspiration.

Beyond Covid-19, what has been the most challenging aspect of expanding Antipodes into a new market? What has been the most rewarding?

Over fifteen years, we’ve put processes in place to ensure we hit the ground running, smoothly. New markets require lots of research, involving conversations at many levels with potential business partners, in-market expertise (e.g. NZTE), retailers, beauty buyers, media, etc, ideally including a market visit. It’s always a really exciting time which requires lots of preparation, so the biggest challenge for us is remaining patient while we work through that preparation!

The second challenge is keeping the ball rolling after launch, ensuring that we work hard with our partners to continue to build brand awareness and sales. Every market is unique, but we’ve been in business since 2006, and so have been able to refine and perfect our roadmap over time. Our cross-functional teams mean we’re able to pivot onto new projects or problems when they arise, without roadblocks.

Most rewarding is the feedback we get from consumers all around the world who have discovered our products and fallen in love with them! Some of the stories are really moving, and we’re thrilled that our products have made such a difference to the confidence of so many people globally.

What has your experience with Kea Connect been like?

Any resource that is designed to foster connections between Kiwis and our vibrant business community is going to get a huge tick from us. In any business, building networks is so important. We’re relatively new to the Kea community, but we’re thrilled that Kiwis around the world are willing to help New Zealand businesses in this way. We also work closely with NZTE in many of our overseas markets and their support has been critical to our success.

What advice would you give to businesses looking to expand into a new market during this time?

Ensure you do your research. Find out as much as you can about the market in the months prior to launch, and who your local competitors and advocates are. Visiting the market is key if you can! Take lots of photos of where and how your products/services are likely to be relevant, talk to potential customers, end-users, and PR companies, and ask lots of questions. Your goal should be to gain not only a deep understanding of the market as it currently stands, but a birds-eye view of where it’s heading.

CONTRIBUTOR

Elizabeth Barbalich

CEO & Founder

Antipodes New Zealand

Kea member

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Fix and Fogg

Can you tell me a bit about the background of Fix and Fogg? Did you always have global ambitions?

Andrea and I started Fix & Fogg 6 and a half years ago with the goal of creating something meaningful, sustainable and delicious. Things started small (in the kitchen of a lawn bowls club to be exact) but there was so much local demand for what we were making that the business quickly progressed. We now supply supermarkets and specialty stores across New Zealand as well as Singapore, Australia, and the USA.

It’s funny you ask about our global ambitions because the name Fix & Fogg actually comes from two characters in the classic 1873 adventure novel, Around the World in 80 Days. At the time I liked the idea of the business being a great journey and adventure. We are now well beyond 80 days … but Fix & Fogg (the peanut butter edition) is slowly starting to go around the world.

Why did you choose the US as the next location for one of your window shops?

The US is the biggest and most competitive peanut butter market in the world, so naturally we were drawn to it. It’s a bit of a brave and bold move but we’re committed to taking our products, values and proud Kiwi story there. Texas in particular had a great appeal given its huge size and opportunity. We found an ex-pat Kiwi living in Houston and we immediately clicked. We always wanted to open a small window in the USA to give our brand an anchor point in this new market.

To what extent did Covid-19 impact your expansion into the US?

Covid-19 has been a rollercoaster for most businesses and F&F is no exception. It crushed our travel plans, delayed ranging decisions and closed our Houston retail window after it had only been open for one week. The upside was that our US online sales went through the roof – we were lucky to be offering US consumers something that is an every-day item. We also snagged some unexpected press by a well known publication rating us as the ‘world’s best peanut butter’, which significantly helped our sales. You can read about it here.

What does your team structure and operations look like given you can’t really travel at the moment?

We employ two people in Texas who look after everything from selling jars from our window, packing online orders and pitching to supermarkets. We’re a true start-up in that sense – it’s a tiny team trying to make some noise in a large, saturated market. They’re backed up by a team in NZ managing strategy, operations, finance and marketing.

Beyond Covd-19, what has been the most challenging aspect of expanding Fix and Fogg into a new market? What has been the most rewarding?

Dealing with any new export market is challenging – and we often say it takes 2+ years to properly establish yourself somewhere new. The USA is a lot different to New Zealand’s FMCG market – there’s more complexity, players and layers of bureaucracy. Geographically it’s a much larger country so logistics and freight add another cost element.

What advice would you give to businesses looking to expand into a new market during this time?

Do your market research and get advice from as many people as you can to understand the opportunities but also challenges and risks. If you’re in it for the long-term then the current situation shouldn’t stop any decision to pursue a well-thought out strategy.

CONTRIBUTOR

Roman Jewell

CEO and Founder

Fix and Fogg

Kea member

WeWork Headquarters, Shanghai
WeWork Headquarters, Shanghai

How did Linehouse come about?

I moved from Wellington to Shanghai in 2009 with an opportunity to work for the international Architectural practice, Neri & Hu. I chose China, as I felt it was evolving rapidly. Shanghai had a progressive pace, with less design boundaries and entrepreneurs more willing to take risks. Eventually I felt I needed to pursue my own business to allow my design ethos to evolve and be recognised. So along with my colleague we started Linehouse.

One of those entrepreneurs who were willing to take a chance early on was WeWork. They were just starting out in Asia, loved our design ethic and flew us to NY. We ended up designing their China HQ in Shanghai, located in a historical building; an opium and ammunition factory. We  repurposed the building, revealing the history where appropriate, carefully balancing new and old. The design process and outcome was well received internationally and for a small company starting out the press was great.

This helped build our profile, but like any business there was still a huge amount of hard work ahead.

Why did you choose to focus on the Asian market?

As many Asian cities are modernizing there are a lot of opportunities, clients are willing to take risks, embrace new design and there is a sense of momentum in the design industry. Even amongst all the developing Asian countries, the sense of design, craft and the willingness to involve good design is very real which for the right designers provides opportunity.

In New Zealand there is often a lot of regulation that you have to work with to have your ideas realized, which sometimes makes the design process more challenging.

More recently in Hong Kong I saw a gap in the design industry which I wanted to pursue. Much of the city’s development is dominated by a few main developers and I wanted to offer a fresh young perspective on design. We got our first high profile Hong Kong project; a restaurant called John Anthony, a modern take on dim sum for a well established F&B operator, this project enabled me to make the move to Hong Kong.

The client backed our fresh approach, and saw it as a steer away from old world luxury design you see predominantly in Hong Kong’s hospitality industry. The international recognition in press and awards was again very helpful to have the design be seen and socialized what we as a design studio offer. This allowed us further opportunity to connect with the leading developers with projects that are aligned with our design ethic. With the move to Hong Kong proven successful, we now use Hong Kong and Shanghai as a base for working on projects throughout Asia, Europe and Pacific.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I always want our work to be contextual and meaningful, we do a lot of research on the project and its context to establish the driving narrative. When starting a project we will investigate the site, location, history, local culture and craft to draw a concept from. In doing so I believe it brings an enriched experience.

There is a huge amount of history in craft in Asia / Pacific to draw from and I am constantly inspired by this. Working with local craftsman and localizing our projects in the sourcing of materials and workmanship.

From a design perspective, the studio operates as a platform to investigate the rituals of inhabitation and how these daily moments can be celebrated through design, transforming the mundane into performative acts.

What has been your greatest challenge throughout your career? What has been your greatest achievement?

It was challenging starting my own company at the age of 30 in a country like China, where nothing is straightforward. The language and the cultural sensitivities were very challenging. The pace of construction and time frames for projects are always demanding in Asia, often we have had to embrace a sense of flexibility in our processes and practice in order to get the best outcome. When I moved to Hong Kong, the challenge was again repeated, with the benefits of what I had learnt perhaps with the added pressure of bigger jobs and soon doubling the studio team and managing those responsibilities.

Perhaps my greatest recognition of achievement to date was being awarded the Dezeen Emerging Interior Design Practice Award at the end of last year (2019) in London. This is one of the top platform’s on an international scale for our practice to be recognized, and provides some satisfaction for the hard work we put in.

How do you stay connected to New Zealand whilst living abroad?

I grew up in a rural community in Gisborne. My background draws me close to the land and from that I am always conscious of introducing these forms into my work. Home remains New Zealand, that is where my heart is and I’m always drawn back there and for longer and longer periods with new family commitments and work opportunities.

What’s next for Linehouse?

I would like to see some of the NZ/Australia projects come live as I spend more time in Australasia so I can bring back my learning’s in Asia to the Pacific. There is a small pool of designers in NZ and I think I can offer a fresh youthful female perspective to the architecture and design space drawing from my experience across Asia and Europe with many top operators.

As a business we are fortunate to have navigated our way through different disruptions in the region especially in the last 12 months and are currently loaded with good projects. We have benefited in having diversification across the regions in terms of project locations especially more recently as the regions are impacted at different times.

So we need to continue to focus on keeping the right opportunities coming our way and this is especially important now when economic environment is challenging. At the same time always ensuring our design is relevant and fresh.

As a taste of our bigger projects that we are currently working on:

  • An architecture and Interior design of a 10,000m2 modern office building in Macau;
  • A large residential project with amazing views of Hong Kong south coast;
  • The design of the food market for the new Booking.com campus in central Amsterdam;
  • A restaurant in Osaka for W Hotel opening this year;
  • An upscale Foodhall in an iconic building in central Hong Kong just opened;
  • Two multi level commercial retail projects (45,000m2) in Bangkok.

CONTRIBUTOR

Roman Jewell

CEO and Founder

Fix and Fogg

Kea member

Maryellen, Jeremy, and Jeremy’s half-sister Kate.

How did Piha Pies come about?

I’m from Auckland and moved to the UK in 1991 as a young cameraman and I’m now a Director of Photography working for all the channels including the BBC, C4 and most recently Netflix.

As a Kiwi, I always wondered why you couldn’t get a decent pie in the UK like the ones in NZ. So after many years of talking about it, in 2018 my wife Susanne and I took the plunge and started a little side business making pies from our converted outbuilding in Forest Hill. Then in September that year, we set up our first market stall at Norwood Feast market in South London – and quickly followed up with other markets, pop-ups and events.

We called named it Piha Pies after my favourite beach on the west coast near Auckland, where I spent a lot of time in my teens, and it’s where I return to every time I’m home and I always grab a pie or two from The Piha Store.

The pies were baked on old family recipes. What’s the story behind that?

This is quite a story. I always enjoyed cooking and when I was younger and it was a toss up whether to go into cooking or into TV work. TV work won out and cooking was put on the back burner.  Then about 6 years ago I found out a huge family secret. On a Christmas visit back to Auckland, my mum and dad sat me down and told me that I had in fact been adopted and that my birth mother wanted to get in touch with me. Although this was a massive shock, there was a silver lining…..

3 months later, after the dust settled I decided to find out who my birth mother was, so I tentatively picked up the phone and asked the adoption agency my mother’s name. I immediately googled her and up popped a newspaper article about Maryellen, the owner of a well renowned cafe in Kohu Kohu, Northland – famous for its pies.

Many months later after many email exchanges, getting to know each other and bonding over pie talk and a general love of food and cooking, we met up in NZ. I showed her photos of my childhood and got to sample some of her famous pies, which were laid out for my welcome. Talk turned to my dream of having a pie shop in London one day and plans were hatched to be taught some of Maryellen’s recipes. So, about a year later when she eventually visited me and Susanne in London, she taught me the family pie recipes. All the recipes were in Maryellen’s head, nothing was written down. We spent the next year practising her recipes, perfecting our own recipes and testing them out on family, friends and neighbours.

For our first market, Maryellen and my new-found sister Kate, also a great pie maker, happened to be over from New Zealand. They were able to give helpful advice and were like a lucky charm because the 100 pies sold out and Piha Pies got really positive feedback.

Do you attract mainly homesick Kiwi customers?

There are always lots of Kiwi customers at the pie stall but it is mostly Brits. What is incredible though is the number of British pie eaters coming back across the market to tell us they are the best pies they’ve ever had – which proves the power and draw of the Kiwi pie.

Since lockdown, we have started doing delivery of our pies – and there is a huge proportion of Kiwi buyers looking for comfort food from home.

Are there any particular moments that stand out in your journey?

It was an incredible moment to find out that we had won Best Newcomer in the British Pie Awards this year on top of a few other awards.

But the thing that really ignited our journey was the revelation that after all the years of talking about opening a pie shop my biological mother was already a professional pie maker and she was able to give such invaluable advice on how to start a food business.

Do you have a personal favourite pie?

We love them all and it’s hard to choose which is a favourite. It depends on what mood you’re in but if we had to choose, mine would be Pepper Steak and Susanne’s is Potato Top.

What are your plans for the future?

We want to expand the business so we can start supplying other businesses – we’ve had lots of requests from Delis, Butchers and Cafes to supply them with our pies. We would love to eventually start selling them in high end food stores and supermarkets so Kiwis and Brits across the UK can get hold of them easily. So we will be looking for investment to move into a bigger kitchen and start employing a team to upscale our output and distribution. 

CONTRIBUTOR

Roman Jewell

CEO and Founder

Fix and Fogg

Kea member

Adapting: Shanghai’s first virtual fashion week.

Last year, Alibaba focussed their efforts on NZ and built a local team to help Kiwi brands and producers connect with Chinese consumers. How have you been working with NZ brands, and what success have NZ brands had on the Alibaba platform?

New Zealand is an important market for Alibaba Group for both high quality products exported to China and inbound visitors. Today more than 700 New Zealand brands are selling via our business-to-consumer marketplaces Tmall and Tmall Global and in 2018 we established a local team in New Zealand to better service our clients across the country.

Our New Zealand team’s focus is to help enable local brands, retailers and producers to successfully connect with Chinese consumers and inbound visitors to New Zealand. Building on this success, we were able to successfully introduce our flagship event the Alibaba E-Commerce Expo to New Zealand last year, allowing local companies to network and loop into Alibaba’s wider ecosystem.

There are a number of New Zealand brands which are ranked as some of the top selling products on our Tmall marketplace. For example, during last year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, the A2 Milk Company ranked eighth in the top 10 imported brands bought by Chinese consumers by GMV. In fact, New Zealand ranked 9th of all countries globally for exports into the China market via Tmall and Tmall Global during the festival.

What new retail trends are you seeing in China – from store formats, consumer needs, and how is Alibaba keeping things fresh for consumers?

Especially at this unique time, we are seeing more businesses digitise their offering and connect into e-commerce channels to enable brands to keep up with consumer demand. With this rise in e-commerce, we are also beginning to see new breakthroughs and developments in logistics, aiding retailers to overcome issues of low transport efficiency and high logistics costs.

For example, in 2016 Alibaba brought grocery shopping into the digital era by merging online and offline retail experiences in launching its Freshippo supermarket concept. The supermarkets have soared in popularity with Chinese consumers thanks to its mobile-first shopping experience, 30-minute delivery options and vast selection of products, including live seafood with cook-in-store options. Within a few years since creation, Freshippo has expanded to about 200 stores.

To expand its reach and capabilities in China, Freshippo has been experimenting with new store formats that cater to the needs of different consumers across the county. While the original supermarket concept remains at the heart of most Freshippo locations, the chain started to introduce new shopping experiences to its portfolio about two years after its initial launch.

The Freshippo brand now includes everything from convenience stores and breakfast pick-up stations to even a shopping mall. As a sign of just how quickly Alibaba is moving, five out of the six new store formats were launched in 2019 alone.

There is also a major global shift towards sustainability and this is something that all online retailers need to consider when it comes to tailoring their distribution strategy. At Alibaba we are looking towards a greener future with more comprehensive green campaigns, such as Alibaba Green Logistics 2020. Enabled through world-class technologies, the campaign represents joint efforts across the Alibaba Group to improve material recycling, packaging, route planning and delivery methods to work towards a greener future.

With the onset of COVID19, how has Alibaba responded? And what support have you provided SMEs during these uncertain times?

At Alibaba Group we recognise that COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on a range of industries. During this time, we wanted to do anything we could to help minimise this impact on the businesses within our ecosystem and ensure they have the ability to emerge from this stronger than before. As a result, we have introduced a range of initiatives to help SMEs during this uncertain time such as reduced marketplace, warehouse and logistics fees.

Alibaba Cloud, the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, has also launched a Global SME Enablement Program to provide cloud technology relief worth more than USD30 million (NZD50 million) to new and existing small to medium enterprises around the world. This new program will equip each business with the solutions needed to maintain their companies amid the pandemic, ensuring they emerge stronger and more resilient.

Shanghai recently held Fashion Week entirely online due to the pandemic – a world first. What was the response, and how can brands use technology/digital now to engage with consumers?

Shanghai Fashion Week was a huge success with more than 150 designers and brands livestreaming their autumn-winter 2020 collections online. Opening showcases alone on the first day attracted 2.5 million views, with the total number of streams for the event totalling over 11 million views, generating more than RMB20 million (NZD4.7 million) in GMV.

This event has highlighted the importance of brands embracing a new digitally enhanced world. Particularly in China, young consumers are highly informed and digitised meaning brands need to step up their efforts when it comes to technology in order to attract and engage with consumers. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the popularity of livestreaming surged with Alibaba’s Taobao Live recording a 120% increase in sales during February compared to the same period last year.

There is data from China showing online sales for food and consumer goods have increased over the last two months. McKinsey have also found a shift in consumer preferences away from restaurants, and towards groceries & fresh food. What are you seeing through Alibaba’s channels/platforms and what opportunities are there for New Zealand producers and brands?

The healthcare, fresh food and mother and baby categories are always popular categories for imported products, particularly from New Zealand. However, Alibaba has also seen an enormous increase in the sale of quality pet products. For example, during last year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, cat food was the best-selling category on Alibaba Group’s cross-border marketplace, Tmall Global. In fact, this year New Zealand pet food brand Ziwi won the “Trendiest Brand” award on Tmall Global.

Most recently, New Zealand’s most successful and largest pet food exporter won the prestigious award for ‘Trendiest Brand’ at Alibaba’s Trendiest Brand Awards of 2020. Kiwi produce and products are incredibly sought after in China due to their ‘clean and green’ image and Alibaba strives to enable New Zealand businesses to explore new opportunities. There is enormous potential to build on the 700 Kiwi brands already on our B2C marketplaces Tmall and Tmall Global.

Lastly, what advice would you give to Kiwi businesses thinking about their future in China?

One of the most important things to think about when planning for global expansion is for brands and retailers to fully understand their target audience. Simply taking your product into the China market in the same format as it is being offered in New Zealand will often not suffice as each market has different wants and needs.

One of the best things for New Zealand companies seeking to enter the China market is to spend some time to find the right partner. Our annual Alibaba E-Commerce Expo has assisted hundreds of brands in connecting with our wider ecosystem over the past three years in Australia. This is why in 2019, Alibaba decided to expand this offering to New Zealand. Over the course of two-days, the flagship event attracted over 100 exhibitors and over 13,000 pre-registrations were received online, which meant every one out of ten Chinese in Auckland signed up to explore the trends and opportunities that the Alibaba ecosystem brings to the New Zealand market. In addition, our Tmall Global marketplace has a local team who can guide New Zealand brands through the process of opening a Tmall Global Flagship store, and they have recently held their first virtual Tmall Partner (TP) matching event, connecting New Zealand and Australian brands with TPs in China.

CONTRIBUTOR

Roman Jewell

CEO and Founder

Fix and Fogg

Kea member

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