New Zealand business

Founders and brothers-in-law Mark Neal and Daniel McLaughlin had ambitions to expand their brand offshore from the get go – Mark says they wanted New Zealand to be known as a producer of the world’s best spirits, and they will hopefully be the grandfathers of that tradition.

“You only have to look at New Zealand’s wine industry which is currently worth around two billion dollars in exports to see what is possible. Ten years ago there wasn’t a market for pioneering spirits, so we started out with an ambition to grow a global company from New Zealand.”

The co-founders were both aware of the emergence of a gin scene overseas and realised that global shifts to a more premium product hadn’t yet hit the Kiwi market.

“We noticed most liquor stores only offered a choice between Bombay, Gordon’s or Tanqueray. At the time we started out there was only one brand of gin being made in New Zealand, now there are around 230. We felt that New Zealand provenience, alongside ingredients would lend themselves to a premium product that would have global appeal.”

In launching their brand the brothers also wanted to challenge people’s perceptions of gin and the generalisations of those who were consuming it.

“We wanted to create a modern, progressive brand in the somewhat traditional gin category.
We put a lot of emphasis on the brand, ensuring it had a core purpose, alongside packaging
which would cut through on the shelf and backbar.”

**Scapegrace Distillery Founders Mark Neal and Daniel McLaughlin**

From humble beginnings

The duo started off by hand delivering bottles to bars in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Queenstown aiming to build their brand locally, it was a hard start and in those early years they found 10 people said no to every one person who said yes, however their determination paid off and as their brand grew they started to plan an export strategy which involved working around the globe to find the best distributors to represent their spirits.

During the early days Mark says what served the company best was having a clear purpose – quality above all else, this helped dictate decisions from a marketing, liquid, business and culture perspective.

“There is no victory in easy, and we’ve got pretty high expectations with our luxury portfolio
and that flows through the company in everything we do. Our bottle took about three years to
design, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a shelf in America or Argentina, you have about five seconds to attract a consumer’s attention, to part with that $80 on a product they have likely never tried.”

Staying true to quality

Staying true to quality has paid off for Scapegrace, the company was awarded the World’s
Best London Dry Gin among 600 entries from 90 countries at the 2018 International Wine Spirits Awards in London. This year, they also landed a major deal with leading UK supermarket chain Waitrose which has helped further expand their presence across Europe, a deal Mark says is hugely significant.

“Winning that award was a huge moment. It proved to us that our marketing, our bottles, and our sustainable processes – although not the easiest way to do it, was finally paying off. The deal with Waitrose was the holy grail. If you’re in with Waitrose you’re doing really well – but you have to continue to do well and it has to work for them – so it’s an ongoing process for us. We’ve put a lot of our energy, focus, investment and resources into this opportunity to make it work and this now means that our proud nation of Kiwi living in the UK can easily enjoy Scapegrace.”

Connections key to breaking into new markets

The founders say being introduced to the right people in the UK and making those strategic connections were key to their expansion and success. They would urge others to ask for help – saying it’s a surefire way to achieve your business goals faster.

“Kea Connect has been brilliant in helping us reach out to the Kiwi community in the UK and further afield. They were the first to introduce us to people like photographers, various suppliers and others who could really be an influence. Organisations like Kea bring you into their community and provide advice. Don’t be shy or worried about reaching out, being an open book is a great way to not have to figure it out all by yourself.”

Entrepreneur Stu Potter isn’t driven by money or world domination, rather his passion to start a business came from a desire to create more opportunities for rangatahi in his hometown of Gisborne and showcase to the world just what Kiwi are capable of.

“I guess StardustME grew out of a want to do something that hadn’t been done before in New Zealand, and the desire to inspire others to think big. We were stargazing one night on a camping trip in Tairāwhiti, and we started talking about space and under-utilised payloads – which is essentially the empty space inside a rocket when it goes into orbit. I wanted to create a company with a focus on sustainability and innovation and the idea of sending people’s ashes into space seemed to tick both those boxes.”

The first company of its kind in New Zealand and one of only three in the world, StardustME takes a portion of a loved one’s ashes and encloses them into a specially designed memorial token, this token is then placed into a rocket, and generally orbits earth for around five years. During this time family members can track the ashes via an app. When the rocket re-enters earth’s atmosphere, it flares as it burns, similar to a shooting star, leaving no waste in space. It’s an idea that’s resonated with many Kiwi looking to honour their loved ones in a unique way.

“We’d come off the back of COVID and there was a high demand for cremation and a high demand for virtual ceremonies and memorial services. It was then I thought that space could be used as a continuum to connect people through technology. Through research and existing connections I had in the funeral industry, I realised that consumers were looking for different ways to honour their loved ones’ past.”

From concept to cosmos

Having a good idea is one thing but turning it into a viable business is another. Stu says It took years of research and development testing to, quite literally, get the company off the ground.

“As with anything related to space, there’s a long lead in time. You’re looking at a three to five year window of research and development testing, refining, compliance, and then you’ve got all the launch logistics.”

Creating a relationship with SpaceX and highlighting the success of a similar business in the USA, gave StardustME the initial leverage to prove the logistics were safe and the business proposal was viable.

“You can appreciate we had to show that we were dealing with families in a respectful way. It was a big challenge but it came back to our relationships with our partner the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand, and having host funeral sites both here in New Zealand and the States.”

Early on in his business journey, Stu’s belief in the StardustME concept was further validated when his cousin passed away.

“My cousin was living in Australia when he passed, but we grew up together in Whakatane. At the time our family couldn’t get his ashes back into the country because of COVID restrictions and therefore he was never able to get the memorial service he should have. I approached his family with the idea of sending his ashes up as our inaugural launch, and they agreed, now we can watch him weaving through the stars in the evening sky.”

Crucial connections

Another challenge of launching the business was the cost. As a self-funded company, solid connections with like-minded companies was critical in turning conversation into mutual opportunity. This was where Kea Connect helped Stu to not only network with the right companies in New Zealand, but expand their horizons in overseas markets.

“Working in a small business can be very isolating, scary and lonely, and sometimes you just need someone positive and optimistic with a really good outlook to talk to. Kea Connect helped me to be more focused on where we are trying to get the business overseas.

“Kea connected me to the right people overseas that could give me their evaluation of how things are in the markets we wanted to enter without having to deal with all the costs that are associated with market research.”

Having successfully completed two launches and now validated in the New Zealand market, StardustME expanded to Australia in late 2023. Their focus shifted to becoming an export business, with plans to grow in Australia before exploring other markets.

Stu also aspires to bring jobs in the space industry closer to home and for it to coincide with the work StardustMe is already doing.

“I want to showcase that we can build a space community in Gisborne. I’m currently looking into how we can put that into action alongside StardustME.”

Kea Connect supported StardustME with connections in Australia, enabling them to officially launch their business there in late 2023.

Sapro-Tech’s Founder Keith Hudson strongly believes that the climate crisis is the biggest issue facing humanity and sustainability is the most impactful action we can take for our planet.

“We’re going forward two to four degrees in temperature by the end of the century. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) we should be shooting down greenhouse gases, but it is still going up and that’s really critical.”

With a background in science and technology spanning 20 years, Keith wanted to use his skillset to find a business solution that would address these very issues. Inspired by the native bush that surrounded his home in the Waitakere ranges, where various species of fungi thrive, Sapro-Tech was born. The company focuses on next generation materials using the amazing properties of mycelium, i.e fungi.

“I have a very ecological perspective. I realised that fungi are remarkable in the number of forms they have. The ones we are interested in are called polypores which tend to grow on dead trees. Fungi are fascinating in the structures that they take from slimes and corals to almost wood like structures such as artist brackets – this variety gave us inspiration to perceive that they could create new materials. I looked at opportunities in creating sustainable businesses, and this is where I thought there was the greatest opportunity in terms of intellectual property, my skills, and a gap in the market.”

**Sapro-Tech’s founder Keith Hudson analysing fungi in the lab.**

Navigating opportunities and scaling innovations

Sapro-Tech’s advantage lies in the way the company uses fungi to combine low cost plant-based products in novel ways and produce a range of materials.

“At Sapro tech we believe we can create products that have similar performance metrics and costs to current leather – and we can probably make a range of materials that even go into plastic-like materials.”

Sapro-Tech Chief Commercial Officer, Andy Hamilton says the main challenge is scaling their business so they can get to a point where consumers eventually prefer an alternative leather.

“There are other companies that are trying to find alternative ways to make a contribution – there’s mycelium leather, cactus leather, pineapple leather – it’s a significant trend. But, what manufacturers and brands are struggling with is obtaining supply of these materials in a form and a price that is just as good, if not better, than real leather.”

Sapro-Tech nearing the end of their second generation of material. The pivotal point for market readiness is expected to emerge in the fourth to fifth generation which Andy says brings a distinctive challenge, how to establish a market presence and engage with potential consumers/partners when your product is not yet available for distribution.

“Often you can only engage with the market when you have something to show them, our challenge is that we haven’t yet finished the second generation of material and we generally aren’t ready to show people those materials. Therefore, how we communicate the possibilities of the product is really important.

“That’s where Kea Connect has been really great. They have helped us with introductions across the world and we have been able to meet people who are also committed to sustainability and are interested in potentially partnering with our brand.”

“It’s important to be clear in the way you communicate/engage with the market – we’ve learnt it’s less about us and more about them. Be consistent. Communication has a big part to play in the openness from the other side.”

**Chief Commercial Officer Andy Hamilton (far left), the Sapro-Tech team, and founder Keith Hudson (far right).**

Kea Connect supported Sapro-Tech with connections in Europe, the United States and New Zealand – some of these connections are now looking to partner with Sapro-Tech in the near future.

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