Jobs 'best incentive to bring Kiwis home'

It's difficult to build an exporting business in NZ, says Andrew Keech. Photo / APN

If it is true that you can take the boy out of a dairy farm in Taranaki but you cannot take the dairy farm out of the boy, then Andrew Keech is the living proof.

Fresh from lunch at the Speight's Ale House, he bounced into an interview showing all of the health benefits his colostrum products are said to provide.

Keech, 40, was in Dunedin to talk to pharmacists about the launch of his flagship product into New Zealand - Pepticol - a spray which he said helped balance a person's immune system.

His company, APS Biogroup, has registered Pepticol in five countries.

It is also conducting trials in four African countries, working with Aids patients.

Pepticol has a full drug licence in Kenya and progress was being made in the treatment of Aids patients, he said.

The product was designed to bring the body's immune system back into balance, and Aids patients were suffering from an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, meaning their system was out of balance.

"This is a simple little mouth spray. But the best way to fight disease is to teach the body to do it. Take the natural approach wherever possible."

The spray product will be distributed in New Zealand by Natural Health Laboratories and is expected to be available mid-year.

Keech has come a long way since he left the family's Taranaki dairy farm aged 18, to study at Massey University.

His academic credentials are impressive, ending with a PhD in chemical and process engineering at the University of Canterbury in 1995.

He worked as a research engineer for the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute in Palmerston North and was whey protein technical manager for Dairy Farmers of America, the largest dairy co-operative in the US.

Not content to work for someone else, Keech founded his APS Biogroup company.

In 2003, he teamed up with three people from the Californian dairy industry and built a new dedicated colostrum processing facility in Phoenix, Arizona. There, he continued his work with bovine colostrum.

His work has focused on finding ways to separate dairy proteins, oils and other materials and extracting the key immune components from colostrum, rather than just processing the raw product itself.

Keech said the factory processed 400 tonnes of colostrum a year and employed 55 people.

Products other than the peptide spray were sold in 50 countries.

The colostrum was sourced from dairy farms in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Some of the farms had up to 20,000 housed cows. Grass was cut and brought to the animals, rather than the cows' walking long distances for feed.

It was important not to rely on just one product for success, he said.

"You never make money in the first 10 years. I have taken all the money and ploughed it back into the business, to help us grow. In the first seven years, we have doubled sales each year."

Sales were up 50 per cent in the last financial year but that had more to do with the difficulties of maintaining previous momentum, rather than the recession.

"Our industry is not affected by the recession. Because we are manufacturers, the products we make can be sold."

When Keech left for the United States, he judged it was difficult for a primary-industry company to be based so far away from major markets.

The US had the biggest economy and a large "local market" in which to establish a business.

"The US is a great place to start a business. Americans work hard and have the highest GDP per capita in the world.

"New Zealand is a land of good ideas. We have a way of solving the problems of the world."

Asked about the incentives he received to be a manufacturing exporter based in the US, Keech had some words of advice for Prime Minister John Key in his quest to bring New Zealanders home from overseas.

"The only way to encourage Kiwis to come back is to provide an incentive, and a tax incentive can be a reason to come back. I love New Zealand but it is difficult to build an exporting business. I would like to build a dairy industry but I can't do that, because it is dominated by Fonterra."

Because Keech is an exporter, he is taxed in the US at the capital gains rate of 20 per cent, rather than the company tax rate of 40 per cent.

He receives incentives to travel to US trade missions.

Half of his accommodation and half of his expo costs are met by the US Government, to help him promote his products overseas.

The US needed to promote exporters to help reduce the current account deficit, something New Zealand could also do.

However, the most important incentive to encourage New Zealanders to come home would be a job to come back to, he said.

The Government needed to focus its efforts on helping small businesses grow and if that meant a tax incentive, then it should be introduced.

It would not mean a shrinking of the tax base, because friendly exporter tax rates would mean businesses from other countries establishing enterprises in New Zealand.

Keech paid tribute to the work overseas by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise in its promotion of New Zealand.

"New Zealand has a clean, green image and is well marketed. I would like to come back and retire here."

- APN