Making change from the regions

For Tauranga-based friends, Stine Smith and Kristy Hunter, the sheer number of plastic-infused cleaning products lining supermarket shelves signified a noticeable market opportunity.

“We wanted to bring something to the forefront for consumers and give them an opportunity to buy something planet-friendly in that category,” says Hunter. 

In 2019, inspired by a sustainable cleaning cloth Smith recalled from her Danish childhood, the pair launched Good Change by offering compostable eco-cleaning cloths and bamboo wipes. They later added their own New Zealand-designed and manufactured waterless cleaning tablets for household cleaning.

The friends have bootstrapped the five-year-old venture into a million-dollar business, with stock in more than 550 independent stores in Australia and over 400 stores in New Zealand.

Good Change also recently landed a deal with Woolworths Australia that will see its products on the shelves of an estimated 635 Australian supermarkets come June, increasing their turnover by 300 percent, or about $3 million. 

From the start, Smith and Hunter had international intentions. Here’s how they achieved that goal from their regional base. 

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Why did you start Good Change from Tauranga?

SS: We live here and it has this great lifestyle, which brings in a lot of good talent. There are young people after the beach life and families settling down. You get the buzz without the big city living. 

Obviously, it doesn’t have the job opportunities of Auckland or Wellington, so it fosters a lot of startups and entrepreneurship. It wasn’t foreign for us to talk about owning our own company because many people do it. The infrastructure is set up as it would be in any of the bigger cities in New Zealand. 

KH: Adding to what Stine said, I wanted to give my kids a provincial New Zealand upbringing, though it’s not that provincial anymore. It was an opportunity for us to stay close to home and start something.

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How did you get your product into New Zealand stores? 

KH: I could show you pictures. We would stuff our car with product and drive, knocking on buyers’ doors. We would walk the aisles of the supermarkets, see where our product could sit in the category, take a photo, go up the stairs and do a two-minute pitch. We could hit eight supermarkets in a day. 

SS: We’d leave at four in the morning, get to the first supermarket at 6.30am or 7am and stop by all the little towns down to Wellington. A few days later, we’d leave at five and get home at one in the morning.

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How did you land the Australian Woolworths deal? 

SS: We worked on it for quite a while, doing lots of Australian market research. We managed to get through to a rep, submitted our product for review, flew across, and did the pitch. 

We sat in this meeting with our bottles and tablets, explaining how it worked, and the rep said, “I’m going to test it right now”. Luckily, it went well though we didn’t hear anything for a while. 

Ultimately, it came down to one meeting, but it took a lot of prep to get what they wanted on the shelf compared to what we already had. 

KH: A lot of people have asked me if it was a scary meeting because Australia is the bigwig of FMCG. But it wasn’t. We know our products, we know our story and we know our numbers. We went in there and delivered the pitch. 

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How hard has it been to attract talent?

SS: We have been surprised. When we hired the first person, we put a job description out on Seek. We were wondering, will anyone apply for this? 

But then we realised Tauranga is a massive hub for people wanting to work with startups. We were flooded with applicants. 

KH: We’re not a massive company. We can’t match top salary levels, but we offer people pretty free rein to learn new skills and work independently. We don’t put anyone in a box. We put a lot of effort, time and resources into training. 

We have this philosophy: we hardly say no to anything. We’ve got quite an open mindset when it comes to ideas and anything the staff want to do. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. 

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Does having to travel affect company culture? 

KH: Back in the day, we both used to travel all the time. I’m always conscious of building a business culture. If we’re away all the time, it’s hard to keep that culture going. Recently, we’ve had reps out on the road. We’ve got an agency that looks after all our sales. 

I probably do the most travel now. I like to get out to different corners of New Zealand and catch up with the reps to build relationships and keep Good Change top of mind. But I’m mindful of the time I’m away from the office. We want to make sure we’re around to keep the culture going for the staff and ensure they feel valued. 

SS: We do things like little events and celebrate the wins. A while ago we went over to the mud pools and had a beautiful lunch. And, there’s always a cold drink in the fridge on Fridays. 

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Have you tapped into local support networks?

SS: More and more. Initially, we got into the regional business partner network, which was a requirement before we could start with NZTE. We’ve been blown away by how involved they are. There are a lot of doors that can be opened. 

KH: There’s a long list. The Business Women’s Network and the Sustainable Business Network are others. 

SS: After the local organisations, we started connecting with NZTE, especially as we moved into Australia. There’s some great support to be had. They’ve introduced us to entrepreneurs on the same path which has provided us with lots of advice and input. It’s been fun. 

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Have you had any mentors? 

KH: Scott [Baragwanath] from Blue Frog Breakfast. He is on the same journey but a few steps ahead of us. He put his arms around us, helping with our pitch for Woolworths, taking me out on the road through all these different chains of stores and meeting buyers. 

SS: In the early days, we also had a couple of supermarket owners who spent quite a lot of time with us going through the systems for how Foodstuff works and how to get in – which they didn’t have to do; they chose to do that. Getting help at that stage was really valuable. 

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What do you think a founder starting in the regions needs to know?

SS: Doing it from regional New Zealand makes sense. A big city has benefits but regional New Zealand offers lots of things too. Go for it. Doors open when you do.

KH: You have to be brave and courageous even when you don’t feel like it. I feel privileged that we’ve got to bring our families up in Tauranga and do something entrepreneurial at the same time.

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