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Home » Magazine » Good, issue 1 » The goods » Garage brandEcostore founder Malcolm Rands is taking clean green Kiwi know-how to the world. Vincent Heeringa caught up with him on the eve of a massive US expansion.
Do all global brands start in a garage? Think Hewlett & Packard and Apple Computer. Think Led Zeppelin and The Stooges. Think Ecostore.
Yes, the lovable eco-products company started by Malcolm and Melanie Rands in a garage 15 years ago is about to go global. In the first of what may be many such deals, a major investor has licensed the brand in the US, meaning Ecostore household products will (according to the plan) be rolled out through 2,100 stores across the US. A percentage of the US revenue will return to New Zealand as a licensing fee.
He’s not absolutely sure, but Rands thinks Ecostore is the first New Zealand-branded product to make it into American supermarkets.
“I’ve been stunned at how fast this has happened. Twelve months ago I did my first global tour with Ecostore. It was supposed to be a study trip, but when I met with major grocery chains in both the UK and the US they said, ‘We want you and we want you now’. I was flabbergasted and told them, ‘But wait, I’m not ready!’”
Rands had work to do at home, documenting the Ecostore brand and product recipes so it could be sold or licensed as a total package.
Within months of his return from the study trip, a visitor from the US walked in with a proposition that Rands could not refuse. “He told me that this wealthy and influential guy, Sheldon Yellon, really wants to make a difference and had searched the world for ideas. The search led him to Ecostore.”
That guy Sheldon Yellon is a shareholder and the chief executive of Balfor, a multi-national firm that specialises in infrastructure recovery for disaster zones, such as New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
“I’ve been stunned at how fast this has happened. Twelve
months ago I did my first global tour with Ecostore ...
when I met with major grocery chains in both the UK and
the US they said, ‘We want you and we want you now.”
The deal took ten months to negotiate but now Rands is contemplating a scale of operation he never imagined. “It’s funny because I never really wanted to run a business. I just do it so I can fund what I really want to do, which is to run my charity Fairground Foundation.”
Fat chance. Rands will be busier than ever with Ecostore. Although he’s stepping down as boss of the Australasian operation, he’ll be taking up the rather grand ‘Global CEO’ role, overseeing the licensing deal and looking beyond the US to other markets.
“Actually, we haven’t settled on the titles yet but basically I’ll be the brand champion, making sure the global Ecostore brand is keeping to its values.”
The scale of the expansion is a far cry from Ecostore’s start in 1992, when Malcolm and Melanie started mixing soaps and detergents for their mail order business from their home, an eco-village in Northland’s Matapouri Bay.
Since then, the Rands have been busy. The family moved to Auckland and Ecostore has grown to become a major Kiwi brand, exporting its eco-friendly household products to Australia, Korea, Japan and the UK.
Rands won’t divest information about revenues or profits but is happy to share some numbers: his products have been in 70 percent of Kiwi supermarkets since 2002; revenue has grown between 30 and 100 percent each year; he employs 35 people; owns a shop in Freeman’s Bay, Auckland; and has about 20,000 addresses on the Ecostore mail order database.
But it’s 2008 that will be remembered as a milestone for the company. First, in February, the Australian Woolworths chain put his laundry and dishwasher powders into its full range of 760 stores.
“That’s significant new business,” he understates.
Doing business in Aussie is hard. The Tasman is littered with Kiwi carcasses such as Telecom (with AAPT), Air New Zealand (Ansett) and The Warehouse (Silly Solly’s).
“I used to live in Australia in the 80s and you know, they regarded us as the uncultured little brother. And maybe we were. But now, in the area of sustainability and organics I find we have real cred.”
What’s especially satisfying to Rands is that his products are ranged alongside the mainstream stuff like Persil and Cold Water Surf—not in an eco-ghetto.
But where the Woolworth’s deal has come from hard work, the US expansion came to his front door.
So why couldn’t the American simply copy the Ecostore formula for success, without the need to license the brand?
Rands says Ecostore has already done the hard work, developing recipes that are environmentally friendly, and get clothes and dishes clean. He also has highly refined marketing approaches that are relevant in any developed country.
“And we have a back story, which he doesn’t. People need a credible story for where a company has come from—it adds credibility and trust.”
To that end, Rands is doing a major PR push on US radio, TV and in the press.
“The licensing deal doesn’t just involve Ecostore—it’s also me. I will be doing a lot of talking in the next few weeks!”
For a guy who’s pioneered eco-entrepreneurship, that should be no trouble at all.
