Tell us about Oxygen and where the idea for the business came from.
I started Oxygen five years ago from my home in Nelson. At the time my sister-in-law was very ill with cancer and my best friend and I happened to be sitting on a beach looking at the back of one of our moisturisers and reading out all the nasty chemical ingredients on the label. From this experience I decided I would start my own skincare company, which would include a line for teens so they could get a really good, healthy start to using skincare.
I am now selling into over 130 retail stores, predominantly pharmacies, throughout New Zealand and also into the UK and France. At the end of last year we secured a deal with a distribution company to distribute throughout New Zealand.
At the end of last year we also reformulated our range to include hops from our farm in Nelson, and changed our preservative to one that is 100% natural. That has grown our potential market by 40% as we can now also sell our products into the health store sector.
What kind of growth has the business been experiencing?