Artemis' recipe for success

Exporting herbal remedies to Asia sounds like a case of selling coal to Newcastle, but Dunedin company Artemis is developing a healthy market for its products.

Sales to Japan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong account for just under 20 per cent of turnover, and company managing director Sandra Clair expected that to at least double in the next three years.

Clair, who trained as a medical herbalist in her native Switzerland, began making the herbal products when she was unable to find suitable herbal remedies for her clients after moving to New Zealand.

“Word spread, and local health stores said they were getting people coming in off the street wanting the remedies because they’ve had really good results.  So I thought there was a niche for high-quality herbal remedies.”

Artemis’ herbal teas and natural body products are now sold in more than 95% of New Zealand health stores. The company’s kidney cleanse and liver detox teas were its most popular products in Asia, where there is a long tradition of using herbal tea remedies.

Clair said the speed of preparing Artemis teas appealed to Asian customers. “They don’t have to go to the trouble to boil it up for an hour, which is what they have to do with their tea remedies.”

The lack of pollution in New Zealand, strict industry regulation and the overall quality of raw ingredients had also been strong selling points.  “There have been a number of scandals out of China where herbs have been adulterated. A lot of expats use our products because they are very quality-conscious.”

Artemis recently introduced cardboard cylinder containers for its products, after its brown paper bag packaging proved too fragile for export. During the rebranding, Clair got feedback about the new look from local Asian social clubs, which led to some changes.

Comments from a group of Japanese women saw a white cardboard lid changed to black tin, as they “felt it looked classier”.

“They also said we should have a key herb from the formula on the packaging because the old [labels] had a mortar and pestle.”

Regardless of how good the product might look, Clair said finding the right distributors was the key to succeeding in Asia. Using the pre-vetting service provided by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise had been money well spent.

In the case of Singapore, Artemis had found distributors via a direct approach from Singapore businesspeople who wanted to expand into the natural health market.

However, Clair warned that businesses needed to look for more than just enthusiasm when searching for a route in. “It’s important to link up with somebody who has knowledge of the industry. A lot of people say they want to do this, but they come from a different profession altogether, which means they don’t have the networks needed to penetrate the market. You need a channel expert.”

She’d found attending a health and beauty trade show in Singapore to be a good investment, and team work during and after the show had helped maximise returns.

“You get so many leads, and you have to be extremely organised at the trade fair to make sure you’re not misplacing information. You need to be very disciplined about record-keeping and then swiftly follow-up, or those leads vanish into nothing.  You’ve also got to have the product ready to serve the market right after the fair.”

When it came to establishing Asian markets, Clair said having the right attitude was half the battle. “Exporting is never just about a product. It’s about learning about other cultures, other ways of living; it’s quite fascinating, but it can be quite a challenge understanding something you’re not used to.

“Westerners are so direct, but Asian people are not comfortable with the same level of directness. It’s a matter of reading between the lines to understand what they are actually telling us, and that’s an ongoing learning process.”

By Amanda Cropp

Image: Sandra Clair showing the company’s old (left) and new packaging (right). The new packaging was developed specifically for the Asian market.