HealthPost focus attracts rare visit

HealthPost, the established online natural health and wellness retailer, recently received a rare visit from the PM Bill English.

HealthPost is proof that location is no barrier to success in the highly competitive world of online retail. With increasing demand for its products and 30% year-on-year growth in the last decade, the company last year invested in a major expansion of its Collingwood facility with a modern warehouse extension and new offices.

More an idyllic holiday destination than a location for a thriving retail business, the last times a PM visited the remote seaside village of Collingwood was Helen Clark in 2005 and Jim Bolger in 1993.

HealthPost Executive Director Dr Lucy Butler said the Prime Minister’s visit was an opportunity to discuss the business success of HealthPost as well as its commitment to the local community and environment.

Today, HealthPost is the largest employer in Golden Bay, employing 85 staff in Collingwood and 19 in Auckland. Like many in the Golden Bay region, HealthPost staff are strong advocates of natural health. The company retails a range of more than 5000 of the healthiest and most sustainable natural products to customers in New Zealand and around the world. Almost 25% of its products are exported to China and Australia.

Having a great team is key to the company’s success. They are clever, dedicated and commercially savvy, adept with the best marketing, product knowledge and customer support skills. To help grow its sales in China, HealthPost has staff in its Auckland office with Chinese language skills working on marketing through the website and on Chinese social media.

Since it was established in Collingwood in 1988, HealthPost has become an integral part of the local community. It is cherished as a family business that genuinely cares not just for the wellbeing of its customers and staff, but also for the wider community and the environment.

In recent years, the company has offset the carbon on its parcel deliveries and operations, planted thousands of native trees around Golden Bay, and installed solar panels to generate its own power.
HealthPost’s Better World Donation Programme lets customers choose at checkout which charity they would like to see a donation go to. So far, the company has given more than $800,000 to a range of worthy causes.

Dr Butler says there is a Golden Bay feel to the HealthPost premises. “Everyone is very dedicated and professional and it is pretty full-on because we’re always growing, but you also get the seedling swaps and people bringing in baking. It makes for a special place to work.

“Today is our annual staff native tree planting event, which is a real highlight of our calendar, so it was nice timing to meet both the Prime Minister and List MP, Maureen Pugh, who is based in the West Coast Tasman and supports natural health.
As the largest employer in this area, we have a strong desire to protect and enhance our incredibly beautiful local environment. From revegetation projects to being trained to assist with whale strandings, it just makes sense for us to lend a hand.”

After meeting with the staff at HealthPost, the Prime Minister was welcomed by teachers and children from Collingwood School and together they planted a native kauri tree by the new HealthPost sign.
“We are currently working on an exciting multi-year Partnership Agreement with DOC to help improve the biodiversity of an iconic part of Golden Bay, details of which will be announced soon.”