KEY POINTS:
Paul O'Brien is not going to crawl under a rock and sit out an economic downturn - he has people's health to think about. O'Brien, who was appointed chief executive of natural supplement company Good Health in July 2006, has a long history in pharmaceuticals.
To operate in the wellness market - as opposed to the sickness market - he says a company has to encourage people to take a proactive approach to their health, in much the same way that they insure their property.
"It requires consumers to be fairly diligent and keep buying product, and if they've just lost another $100 out of their wage packet because of fuel or mortgages, some of these products may drop by the wayside, particularly if they are for long-term protection against illness."
Baby boomers are lapping up the news that preventive health care can improve their wellbeing, O'Brien says. And customers in Good Health's booming export markets in Thailand and Indonesia have never had so much money to spend on themselves.
"Each year, because of rampant GDP growth, people are moving from poverty into the middle class and are looking for premium products they can spoil their children, family and themselves with," O'Brien says.
Good Health was founded by John Blanchard in 1987 when he decided to repackage evening primrose oil, produced by South Island farmers, as a health product.
Among the buyers were Asian tourists, who started taking Good Health's supplements back home as gifts.
The product range expanded to include natural honey and fish oil, and Blanchard was soon approached by potential export markets - no cold, hard sell needed.
The company has now been exporting for 12 years, shipping capsules and oils to 14 countries including South Africa, Hong Kong, The Netherlands, Korea and China.
Good Health's colostrum has recently become hugely popular in China and Indonesia. Single-child parents link strong-boned Kiwis with the abundance of milk products here and are buying it in 350g containers, O'Brien says.
The company's Albany building, which it moved into in 2005, is designed so visiting export partners can view the pharmaceutically certified factory without having to don white booties and hairnets.
John Blanchard's son Dave now leads the export team and his goal is to lift exports to become the dominant sector of the company, pulling in $20 million per year.
Good Health now has a turnover of $16 million, and exports account for around a third of that.
Dave's brother Brian runs the technical side of the business, supporting exports with a large team of technicians, pharmacists and chemists who operate under a Ministry of Health Good Manufacturing Practice licence.
They jointly own the business with brother Daren, and the three decided to bring in O'Brien as chief executive after their father's death in 2003.
Now an honorary Blanchard family member, O'Brien says he enjoys working for a smaller company with fewer layers of management.
"The good thing about a company this size is that you can actually make a difference," he says.
The company's 60 staff are willing to work around the clock to complete a big order.
Good Health competes against companies worth $100 million, but O'Brien says he has no desire to grow the company into a large conglomerate with little cohesion.
However, he is looking to grow Good Health's export markets by 85 per cent in the next eight to nine months, but to do this he will need to smooth out the "peaks and troughs" of production.
One of the first things he addressed when he arrived at Good Health was the inconsistent order flow - one month the production team is quiet, the next they are flat out and hiring contractors and machinery.
O'Brien says overly busy weeks are just as bad as quiet ones: "When you are rushed you throw all hands at the pump and start being inefficient," he says.
To combat this, the company now asks its export destinations to project their future order requirements.
O'Brien has also stressed the importance of reinvesting profits in export markets - be it in marketing, branding, support or sales.
He believes a company needs to maintain strong marketing through a recession, because at the other end it will be better positioned than its competitors.
"If anything, we need to crank up our leadership and do things that are innovative and inspiring to consumers and retailers."
Good Health aims to take on an education role over the next year and put out more information about health supplements.
"There are many people in New Zealand who don't take supplements but who would benefit from taking them. My long-term goal is to get people thinking about supplements - just as they would insure their house against a fire, I'm suggesting they should insure their body against long-term degradation," he says.
