Member spotlight - Tui Balms celebrates 40 years in business

In a remote corner of South Island’s Golden Bay, co-op workers make Tui Balms - altogether natural massage and skincare balms. From the original Bee Balm recipe, they’re now nearing 30 products for skincare, massage and bug repelling. The products are made with entirely natural ingredients and certified organic New Zealand beeswax.

This year marks 40 years of business for Tui Balms. When they joined GS1 New Zealand as a member in 2002, they had just finished their purpose built premises which took them from a community cottage kitchen to a facility with specialised equipment. Since then, they’ve expanded their premises several times to allow for increased demand and are now sold in over 500 retail outlets across New Zealand. “We went from selling a handful of Bee Balm to a $1m turnover” says Richard Gall, Co-Manager.

As the company has grown, Tui Balms have retained their core values as a not-for-profit and workers' co-op. Richard shares “We’re really careful about who we deal with and making sure that they’re following sustainable principles as well. Principles like looking after the land, the water, the people that are doing the work for them.” Since 2003 Tui Balms say they have donated $849,122 to local and national charities and many of their team number 10+ years in tenure.

GS1 New Zealand’s ProductRecallNZ (PRNZ) service has helped Tui Balms to fulfil their obligations as a supplier to Foodstuffs to complete a mock recall every six months. PRNZ streamlines and automates the steps suppliers must take to complete a product withdrawal or recall. Recommended by the Ministry for Primary Industries, PRNZ supports businesses operating under the Food Act, Wine Act, or Animal Products Act. Businesses operating under these acts are required to have a recall and withdrawal plan in place and carry out regular mock recalls.

For Tui Balms, the service has been a preventative measure, much like fire safety training, to ensure that they are ready if there’s ever cause for a recall or withdrawal. Thankfully they’ve only had to use PRNZ once every six months to do mock recalls which keeps their training and processes current.

“This is the ideal scenario for PRNZ, says Chris Martin GS1’s Application Support Specialist, we want our users to be able to jump into the system, do what they need to do, and get back to growing their business.”

Find your local retail outlets of Tui Balms.

If you’d like to streamline your product recall processes, you can find out more and sign up here.