Andrea Blondel, founding director of Nectar. Photo / Supplied
Andrea Blondel, founding director of Nectar. Photo / Supplied
Andrea Blondel, founding director of handmade soap and shampoo bar business Nectar, talks, growing out of her home manufacturing unit, Covid-19 delays and gearing up to start working with international distributors in export markets.
What does your business do?
Nectar Body & Bath is a Howick-based personal care company thatmanufacture a range of salon-quality shampoo, skincare and soap products for the entire family with a strong focus on natural and ethical supply of ingredients and packaging. I had the idea for the business and first started making soaps in 2007 and it became a full-blown business in 2018. We're making about 100 soap and 100 shampoo and conditioner bars each week.
What was the motivation for starting it?
It started actually as a hobby while I was running my other business, which was an interior design firm, which I have done for nearly 25 years. My second son developed eczema around about the two-year market and it was hideous until he was about 10 or 11. I bought a soap for me and it was handmade - I only bought it because it was in the perfume I liked - and I noticed how nice it was compared to buying body washes. My son started using it and no joking, after years of pain he went through and all sorts of creams from doctors and naturopaths it went away and he never got it back.
I did a lot of research, for about a year, and started making soaps for my family; then I got the bug. I started getting really creative with the soaps and people started wanting them and then I started making other things, and then I started doing markets. A couple of years ago I decided to go full time with it once I had gained a bit of reputation and regular customers.
How big is your team?
There's two of us - my 23-year-old son helps me out and we both work full time on the business. We also have my nephew Paul Mills who has bought into the company and is a director and he comes and helps every so often if we have a large export order that needs more hands on deck. I also have contractors who are on call when we need them.
I have exported already. I supply shampoos and conditioners to another company, I custom make them for them under white label. With this company we've had quite a good relationship and we've teamed to export under another name, New Zealand Flavours, to export both of our products together because she is very good at the admin side of it and I'm good at the creative and formulating side. We're just getting started on that at the moment, we haven't exported anything under that name yet.
Nectar makes about 100 soap and 100 shampoo and conditioner bars each week. Photo / Supplied
At the moment I send orders to customers who buy through my website to the Britain, Italy, Australia, the United States, Canada and Japan. We're going to set our sights on those markets where people have already come to us. At the moment we're just interviewing distributors in those countries so that can be sold through a distributor in retail.
Where are your soaps and products made?
We have a separate unit from our house but on the same property that I built years and years ago. We use that as a mini factory, but we're getting to a point where we're just outgrowing it. We thought we would have been out of here by now and into a commercial unit, but not at this year because of Covid. It should have happened this month, but all of the plans were postponed until we can gather more speed again.
How has Covid-19 and the lockdowns affected the business?
It's be very up and down. We managed to get certification as an essential business and already had a really good contacts list courier system, and we were in our bubble anyway, and so we managed to keep on trucking. We did quite well during the lockdown because people couldn't get to the shops, which provided a bit of a boost for us.
I would like to see us with our own retail outlet in major centres, and exporting - that's a main focus. For the next couple of years we are really going to concentrate on getting into retail around New Zealand. I have two agents, one in Wellington to do the North Island and one in Dunedin to do the whole of the South Island so we can launch into retail, as I haven't had the time to do that myself. We hope to be stocked in pharmacies, gift shops, garden centres and I'd love to get into some of the chains like Farmers.
What advice do you give to others who want to start their own business?
Do your research and make sure that you assess your market and the needs and wants. Make sure you are producing something people want, and be customer-centric.
