Kiwi company Snowberry snapped up by P&G in multi-million dollar deal

Snowberry founder Soraya Hendesi's singular focus on developing quality and sustainable skincare products has caught the eye of a major multinational. Photo/Supplied.

New Zealand skincare company Snowberry has been acquired by multi-national consumer goods company Procter & Gamble.

Snowberry New Zealand general manager Greg Billington told the Herald the deal was signed last Thursday, adding the brand to a portfolio which also includes SKII and Olay.

Billington would not disclose the value of the deal, but a source suggested it was worth tens of millions of dollars.

Billington said P&G was drawn to Snowberry because of the company's use of natural ingredients and an innovative approach to skincare products.

A significant asset owned by the company is a plantation called the Snowberry Gardens, located north of Warkworth, from which some of the critical ingredients are grown and harvested.

At the moment, Snowberry primarily trades in New Zealand, China and the United States, as well as shipping product to other countries, but Billington said a big part of the motivation behind the sale was to give the company access to further capital to expand.

With the P&G machine behind it, Snowberry now has access to a number of international markets that would have previously proven a challenge to enter.

P&G is listed as the 98th largest business on the Fortune 500 list, and is considered the biggest and most powerful advertiser in the world, spending more on promotion than any other organisation annually. The company, which earns US$65 billion ($89b) in annual revenue, is based in Cincinnati and has a global employee base of 100,000.

"P&G has extraordinary R&D and marketing resources," Billington said.

"Snowberry management considers it a privilege and a hugely exciting opportunity to have access to those resources, to continue to develop the anti-ageing solutions that we know our customers want."

Billington said with the backing of P&G Snowberry would expand its product range and continue to expand on product innovations developed with support from Callaghan Innovation over the last five years.

Snowberry was founded in 2007 by Persian-born New Zealander Soraya Hendesi, whose personal story remains interwoven into representations of the brand across social media.

• Read more on Hendesi's story here.

Billington said that the local team, including Hendesi's role as founder and his as general manager, would remain unchanged despite the takeover by P&G.