Founded on a shared vision to reverse the trend of human health decline
The Brothers Green was founded in Christchurch, March 2017 on a late night visit to pick up a pack of hemp protein.
Brendon Mcintosh (community pharmacist) and Brad Lake (rural banker/rugby player) (also not brothers) began a discussion around the major issues they were seeing in their respective industries, as well as with their own health.
Brad playing for Lincoln University Div 1’s against University of Canterbury
Brendon handing over his badge on the last day at Cashel Pharmacy
This discussion led them to uncover the issues they faced every day. Brendon was seeing an increased number of pharmacy customers dealing with lifestyle related health conditions which never seemed to improve, and an overburdened healthcare system. While Brad, working in a rural sector facing increasing pressure from regulation, commodity prices and public perception, was witnessing firsthand the results of a significant change in diet and lifestyle.
As they continued late into the evening, they came to realise that there was something they could do. It did not have to continue down the path of ever worsening human health and a New Zealand Agricultural economy that had to diversify away from regulation and ever decreasing margins.
The solution had to be available, scalable and have a massive impact on human health.
With no idea what a journey we were about to embark on, The Brothers Green was born.
Deep Story Below
Over the next 12 months we would begin to form the range of products that would help us establish hemp as a viable health product, before embarking on a mission to contract our own hemp crops and to give as many farmers as possible the chance to grow it. Starting at the local farmers market, we began selling hemp seed oil and protein powder for dogs.
We could see the growth of advertising on social media and how online stores were growing rapidly. After getting our website set up, our attempts at running ads were blocked every time. We would have to do it another way.
Brendon packing our first bags of hemp protein for dogs in his kitchen on Aikmans road
At that time hemp seed oil was the only hemp product permitted to be sold for human consumption, any other product was fit for animal use only. You also needed a license to handle any whole hemp seed.
We learnt three major things that year:
1. Most people thought hemp would get you high
2. Selling any health supplement as pet food is very difficult
3. It’s illegal to market any hemp products online.
We had basically picked the hardest industry to try and start a business in; small, high level of scepticism, almost impossible to do paid advertising, and illegal for human consumption.
We then caught our lucky break, we were selling hemp snack bars and protein ‘bliss balls’ (for animals only) and had a conversation with a customer who recommended we enter a food competition with New World supermarket. The prize pack on offer was worth $85k and included getting a product range on New World shelves across the South Island.
Brad and Brendon after winning the Foodstarter Competition in October 2018. We got our hemp licence rejected two days later. The same day the law legalising hemp seed changed.
As a rural banker and a pharmacist entering a food competition, we thought we had little chance of success. Against the odds we made the final, and when we presented our vision for the Canterbury Plains to be covered in hemp crops and for kids across New Zealand to have a nutrient rich, high protein snack bar in their lunch box and not be obese, we were awarded the top prize and access to all the New World’s across the South Island.
Unfortunately, due to the untimely release of the article announcing our food competition win, we had our hemp license rejected for the use of hemp hearts in our snack bar. This unfortunate timing seemed to follow us for the next few years.
Luckily the hemp laws changed in the following three days, allowing all hemp seed products to be sold for human consumption, although now it was illegal to be sold for animals.
Brad, Aaron Franks, Joseph Fraser who still works for us and Brendon at the Christmas Riccarton Markets - December 2018
With most people, especially our families, completely against this longshot idea, we both quit our jobs, handed in the comfortable salary, company phone and vehicle and went all in on The Brothers Green.
Brad and Brendon the night before we launched our first products in New World, Northwood. NZ cold pressed hemp seed oil
During this period we also met three incredible people, Lois Gill, Loudon and Judith Keir, at a Coffee and Jam session in Christchurch. After pitching our ridiculous dream, they took a huge punt on us and invested in the business and our vision. They have been instrumental in their support and guidance ever since.
With the process starting, our hemp bars in development, and the mammoth job of setting up this supply chain, we needed more help.
We brought on someone to help us grow this brand and company. A good friend from Lincoln University, Micheal Burnett, joined with a vision to launch and grow our business with a new supermarket food range.
Brendon, Michael and Brad - May 2020
The next two years we would learn the complex and extremely challenging business which is the food industry. From product development taking three times longer than forecast, to the difficulties in making a healthy, delicious snack bar, to using compostable packaging - every turn presented another challenge. But in October 2019, against the odds, we launched The Hempy Bar across the South Island, only nine months later than expected.
Article in North Canterbury news in the Smith’s Culverden Hemp Field
During this time we had begun our dream of growing and processing our own hemp. With mates from Lincoln University and ASB we formed a company - Mainland Hemp - to process the hemp we would need to supply our new snack bars. With nowhere else to get product processed, this was our only option if we wanted to grow ourselves in North Canterbury.
The boys packing and sticking 10,000 hempy bars at Baker Boys - September 2019
First Hemp Bars on the Shelf - September 2019
We ordered the equipment required for de-hulling and oil pressing hemp seed, found a location and growers in Culverden with Sam Smith and his incredible parents, and got excited about the future…there was a referendum coming, our first sales had just started and our processing equipment was on its way.
Then in December 2019, a news story out of China about an illness started to make headlines. After a trip to Melbourne to find distributors for the Hempy Bar, we arrived home and two weeks later, we were in lockdown. Welcome to the black swan event of the century
Brad with Chao Cacao hemp chocolate bar collab in Byron Bay before Splendour in the Grass - January 2019
We were barely 13 months into business and still incredibly inexperienced. It still baffles me we actually thought it would work. We both could see our vision, but the decision making, execution and timing of everything just seemed to be wrong, nearly every time.
First Culverden Hemp Harvest - March 2020
First customers at the Tapapa Store on Montreal Street - absolute legends - November 2020
Over the next two years we would come to understand the immense challenges of business. We increased staff and capacity to try and grow the brand, set up additional brands and products (huge distraction) to utilise more of the hemp we were growing, and tried to grow our sales without the option to use traditional marketing methods. All while navigating the biggest Black Swan in our lifetime, a global pandemic.
Tapapa Store fitout - Montreal Street - December 2020
Kōaka Skincare Range launch - December 2020
With Hempy Bars in stores across the South Island, we now realised the challenge of actually selling these bars; trips across the South Island, in store tastings, thinking we were gluten free and dealing with the cost of supermarket distribution and in store sales - this thing seemed to be getting harder and harder. On top of this, lockdowns and the social impact of the pandemic was causing havoc in and out of the business.
Hemp processing and drying facility, North Canterbury - May 2021
We had also brought on Aleshia Johnson to help us set up our Kōaka skincare range using hemp seed oil as the base. We knew hemp was amazing for skin health and it seemed a great idea with two pharmacists to get a range in production and get this into pharmacies.
Aleshia and Brendon worked on the formula of the range, and we managed to secure a contract deal with a large national distributor to have the range across all five hundred of their pharmacies in Aotearoa. Again we would learn the cold, hard reality of distributing through retailers - just because it's on the shelf, does not mean it will sell.
They placed one large order, and never ordered again despite us having to carry at least six months worth of stock in order to secure the deal.
Aleshia and Brendon prior to distributor presentation - January 2021
At the end of 2022 with the challenges mounting, sales slowing and the increasingly uncertain direction of both the business and the economy, the decision was made to restructure the business. We reduced our staff from eight down to two, closed our store in Central Christchurch and pulled the hempy bar out of production.
It was just Aleshia and I, she was based in New Plymouth, myself in Christchurch.
How did we ever get to this position, and how would we ever get out...
Our team had made a huge amount of progress during this time in building our brand organically as well as uncovering some incredible benefits and value from our hemp seed oil and hemp protein. As hard as it had been, we knew the product worked - it was more than just a food and increasingly people were looking for natural solutions to their health concerns.
With what seemed like no other option than to keep going, we made the incredibly hard decision to sell our home in order to keep the business afloat. We were lucky enough to not have to sell all of it and were able to continue to live there. Aleshia and I, with the help of my incredible partner Ella, moved the office and dispatch back to our home and garage.
Life is not easy, but I did not think this would ever be so incredibly hard.
We kept processing in Culverden and continued with a rebrand and product development, moving to become a focused supplement company. With more and more people keen to try our products and the positive reviews starting to flow through, we just had no idea how to reach new customers without digital advertising.
Aleshia in the West Farms hemp field north of Ashburton - March 2023 - photo cred Spid Pye
We went through the rebrand, completely shifted our messaging to supplements rather than food and focused as much as we could on the core products; our Move oil for joint health, Digest protein powder for gut health and kept our Kōaka skincare range as we had a ridiculous amount of stock on hand.
In June 2023 after three and half years in Culverden, we got the opportunity to move the factory somewhere closer to home, an hour away was getting more and more difficult as sales grew and we had started finding some buyers of our bulk ingredients.
Picking up processing container and equipment from Culverden to Greendale - June 2023
Nearly 15 months later after some incredibly difficult moments, a friend and digital marketing guru James Forsyth sat up with me one night knowing that if we could run facebook ads, considering the reviews and sales we had already had, we could grow quickly. We stripped the website of any mention of hemp, made some ads and turned them on.
Back to a home office - February 2023
The Turn
What has happened since then I would not believe unless I had been through it. Instead of getting rejected and shut down, this time the ads stayed on and our sales continued to climb, with the ability to reach new customers finally being accessible, consistent and profitable.
With Aleshia on maternity leave with her first, Remy. We brought on two more people in what seemed like a big move after the last couple of years. There’s no way we would have managed the growth without them. A good friend who I met in Southland had just joined us, Kristen Schrader, and young Joseph Fraser, a young man I'd met through a big brother programme when he was 14. With her six month old Marley in tow, Kristen, Ella, Joseph and Myself were now in the middle of the fastest business growth we could ever hope to have imagined.
Out of our garage at home, our one bedroom office and our small factory in Greendale, we would find ourselves now having to produce five times the product and orders we were used to within six weeks. With James pushing marketing hard and the direction from E-Commerce Equation, this would kick off what would become another incredibly important yet challenging period filled with sheer relief.
Wainoni Factory set up - March 2024
In the last twelve months, we have moved and expanded our manufacturing process out of three containers in Culverden into two units in Wainoni, Christchurch. We have since produced over 75,000 individual products, had over 21,000 new customers, processed over 50,000kg of hemp seed and more importantly we now have over 1,300 five star reviews and some unbelievable health outcomes for so many of our customers.
We contract all our own New Zealand hemp seed across the South Island and process it from the raw ingredient right through to the end products available on our website. We are now able to reach millions of people if we can keep growing, taking both our products and results to as many people around the world as we can.
Nick (My brother), myself and Raj with our biggest ever day $78k - Black Friday 2024
It’s hard to put into words the feeling when someone experiences a significant improvement in their quality of life when they use our product. Often it will surprise them, then elate them as they realise a natural, healthy product can make such a difference without side effects. When they share their experiences with us, it makes all the toughest moments of this journey worthwhile. We are committed to continuously improving our products to make that experience even better and effective.
The Future - Our Responsibility
Health is changing, we are no longer ignorant to the effects of a modern lifestyle on our general health and well being. It is becoming increasingly obvious that we have two choices.
We either choose to ignore the causes and symptoms of the damage we do to our bodies, or choose to do something about it.
The most basic health choices we can make are what we decide to put, or not put in our body.
Saying no to putting poison in your body every single day is the lowest hanging fruit for better health.
Our body knows how to take care of us, we just have to stop putting crap in it.
Our health system is struggling because we are on a path of growing increases in lifestyle related diseases. This is a problem more money and resources will never solve, New Zealand will either go broke, or have to significantly reduce the current health services we enjoy today if we continue on this path where the general population becomes sicker and sicker.
We have to reverse this trend, and it will not happen through any other means than everyone taking full responsibility for minimising the damage they do to their health through their lifestyle.
We cannot solely rely on prescriptions and a central health care system to maintain the quality of our life. We can all take the pressure of the many incredible people in this system.
Our health is our responsibility, dependence on anything or anyone else to manage or improve our health will never be as effective as our own actions.
Brad outside our store in Wainoni, Christchurch - October 2024
A massive thank you to the following legends..
The last seven years we have had a number of people come in and out of this business, all making their own mark on the company we have today. Thank you to you all for all your contribution and energy to creating something great. Brendon Mcintosh, Michael Burnett, Aaron Franks, Alexia Kotzikas, Eden Sloss, Jamie Engelbrecht, Sam Smith, Dave Pringle, Ben Crawford, Hagen Schulte, Natasha Godetz, Eugine Koning, Laura Dalgety, Henni Gang, Sophie Thompson, Raj, Pavani, Liam Pramm & Nick Lake.
To those who have helped us along the way, starting a business is the hardest thing you can do. I think it’s impossible without the help and support of a number of people in your community.
To all our investors, we cannot thank you enough for your trust with your hard earned cash. You have all meant we could keep going and continue trying to create the business we are building today. I know we can make your money back ten fold.
To Clair, Venessa and Marty Smith for allowing us to get set up, for helping so much with processing, for growing our hemp crops and for your flexibility as we navigated the challenges of our business, and for the immense investment in the first drying and processing plant in Culverden.
To Mark Hillier for allowing us to set up in Greendale and for all the business guidance, ideas and support through 2023-2024.
To Andrew West, who has been incredibly supportive and flexible growing hemp and also supporting the hemp industry and has been critical to ensure we could keep going when the industry felt like it was dying.
To everyone else in the hemp industry, damn this has been hard for us. The last 40 years it almost feels like no progress has been made. Thank you to the titans who battered down the government doors to get us to where we are today. We hope we can do you all proud.
To Lois Gill, our guardian angel.
Every customer we have ever helped, every seed we have planted, every one we have ever employed owes you immensely.
You have stood by our dream and believed in us since 2018, through everything you have given us the financial and emotional support to keep going when it seemed almost hopeless.
You have impacted so many lives, none more than me. None of this would exist without you.
A sincere thank you to everyone who has ever purchased from us, told your friends, left a review or played any kind of role in getting this company and mission to where it is today.
We should all look forward to the future, even when you look around and it may not always seem like it, humanity is making progress. We have never had the chance to understand how to take more responsibility for our health than right now.
Your body, your health, your responsibility. Health without a prescription.
Cheers,
Brad and The Brothers Green crew