Weleda - personal touch celebrated

Weleda AG CFO Michael Brenner unveils a plaque celebrating 60 years of Weleda NZ with Weleda Germany regional director for Asia Pacific Heiko Barth, watched by Weleda New Zealand managing director Fred Dryburgh (right). Photo / Patrick O'Sullivan

Nestled above Te Mata Estate and Black Barn vineyards in Havelock North, Weleda NZ celebrated 60 years of "unlocking the wisdom of nature" through medicines and personal-care products on Sunday.

Parent company Weleda AG's CFO, Michael Brenner, said Weleda NZ was to be congratulated for its 60 years - the average lifetime of a limited liability company was about 15 years.

He said successful and enduring companies shared four features: a strong sense of identity, a decentralised structure with a lot of trust given to branches, sensitivity to their environment and conservative financing.

Three years ago Weleda AG faced illiquidity, with a net debt of NZ$190 million, but was now debt free, he said.

The Swiss multinational was founded more than 90 years ago based on the principles of Rudolf Steiner, who believed natural ingredients provided what a body needed to be vibrant.

It is no coincidence Weleda New Zealand is in Havelock North, a main centre for Steiner-based Anthroposophy. Weleda was clean and sustainably-green well before it was fashionable.

General secretary of the Anthroposophical Society of New Zealand Sue Simpson said Weleda came to New Zealand at a time when chemicals became a farming mainstay "and now we know it destroyed so much of the earth".

Weleda pioneers had "a capacity to break boundaries, a capacity to step out of the familiar, a capacity to be different".

Weleda NZ hosted an open day on Sunday at its Havelock North site, the only Weleda site in the Asia-Pacific region that both grows and manufactures products.

"What matters to us here is having soil that is natural and organic that is able to nourish and make healthy plants, that will give us plants that we can use in our products not only this year but next year and for many years to come," Weleda New Zealand managing director Fred Dryburgh said.

"What mattered to those people 90 years ago still matters to us today. The ideas of the pioneers are the ideas of staff in their daily lives. If we stay true, it will take us forward for many years to come."