Eagle Protect co-founder and CEO Steve Ardagh. Photo / Supplied
Eagle Protect co-founder and CEO Steve Ardagh. Photo / Supplied
Steve Ardagh and Lynda Ronaldson, co-founders of Kiwi glove company Eagle Protect, talk to the Herald about their journey to supply high-risk industries with quality and ethical gloves.
What does your business do?
Eagle Protect is a Christchurch-based disposable glove and personal protection equipment (PPE) companyon a mission toensure Kiwis across hospitality, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and primary food industries have access to gloves which are clean, durable, and sourced via robust, ethical supply chains. Part of this is ensuring we uphold our B-Corp certification.
What was the motivation to start your business?
Single-use gloves are a necessity — not a want — in many high-risk settings. By focusing on the correct product for the specific task at hand we can provide a more sustainable alternative that doesn’t compromise quality and reduces environmental impact.
Our gloves are well made using quality raw materials and manufacturing processes. This means fewer rips and tears, leading to a reduction in gloves being discarded before a job is finished. This ultimately results in fewer unused and under-used gloves going to landfills per year, which, when you think of the number of gloves used daily, is a major step in the right direction.
From an ethical perspective, we saw that the supply chains providing many of the gloves and PPE to New Zealand health, food and other sectors, were murky at best, and inhumane at worst. With forced labour allegations and claims of migrant worker exploitation, we knew that we needed to take the lead in cleaning up our industry. Our team worked very closely with our manufacturers, visiting their factories to assess their hygiene and labour conditions so that our gloves are produced in safe and healthy working environments.
There is an old saying that goes: “It is hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys.” We want to soar like the eagle, improving the glove and PPE sector to ensure the best outcomes for our customers and the safety of the wider community.
What were you doing before Eagle Protect?
Before establishing Eagle Protect in 2006, Steve was running a marketing consultancy and Lynda was a partner in a multi-site physiotherapy practice in Christchurch.
How big is your team?
We began with just two staff members in a small office in Christchurch and have since grown to 10 staff across New Zealand. In 2016, we expanded to the United States. We now have 10 staff across the US and are continuing to grow the team.
How much has the business grown?
We wanted to start a business with an underlying mission of doing good for all we came in contact with: staff, customers, and suppliers. This morphed into our B-Corp Certification in later years. Our expansion into the US market was the natural next step. The US is one of the largest markets for gloves using (pre-pandemic) 228,000 gloves per minute - over 328 million gloves per day, yet due to poor glove quality, estimates suggest as many as 50 million gloves per day get sent to landfills without ever being used.
Eagle Protect co-founder and vice president of marketing Lynda Ronaldson. Photo / Supplied
Our products are used across 80 per cent of NZ’s primary food companies including Silver Fern Farms, Tegel and Alliance Meats. In the US, big names include Costco, Cargill Meats, JBS Foods, and the US cannabis industry.
What’s the major focus for the business right now?
Our major focus at the moment is to raise awareness around the quality of disposable gloves and PPE entering the New Zealand market.
Where do you see your business in the next three to five years?
It is a very exciting time for Eagle Protect. In New Zealand, we have seen considerable growth across all sectors and are looking forward to the future as we consider how we continue to further our mission and provide Kiwis with access to safe, durable and clean gloves.
In the US, business has doubled across the last six months, seeing us supplying many iconic US food brands.
What advice do you give others thinking about starting their own business?
Firstly, take all advice with a grain of salt and follow your instincts. Having a plan is important, but you should be flexible to allow for creativity, ingenuity and unexpected opportunity. The highs and lows of running a business can be incredibly rewarding, especially once you can see the positive effect it can have on your team and the wider community.
Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the company’s name incorrectly.
