| 29 T T Hugh de Lacy Honey products for home and abroad Cosana NZ, half-owned by Japanese parent company Cosana, based in Kobe, is run by co-owner Chris Bowman in Taupo. Cosana NZ REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT They call honey ‘the nectar of the gods’, and a bustling Taupo factory is pumping out a heavenly range of around 160 honey-derived labelled products throughout the world. Cosana NZ, half-owned by Japanese parent company Cosana, based in Kobe, is run by co-owner Chris Bowman from a 1200sqm factory, supported by two 1000sqm warehouses, that employs more than 20 people designing, procuring, labeling, packing, and dispatching honey products for 23 customers, local and overseas. Chris has an extensive background in the honey industry, especially New Zealand’s unique manuka honey, after coming here 20 years ago from a background in building design and servicing in the United Kingdom. He landed the job as Chief of Operations for Manuka Health, based in Te Awamutu, and following a corporate buy-out relocated to the Central Plateau and took on the challenge of building a new processing facility in Taupo for the King Honey company, driving the growth and success of its bee and manuka honey brands before it was sold to Me Today. He then moved on and subsequently agreed a deal with Cosana Japan, a previous major distributor for Manuka Health which had been selling high-end quality manuka-based health products since 2008, to set up a purpose-built processing and packing facility in New Zealand. “I’d moved on from King Honey after four years, and when Cosana approached me to source product in New Zealand I suggested they put up the capital for a state-of-the-art factory in Taupo,” Chris says. “That was in 2021, and in the subsequent four years we’ve brought the company into profit and are looking at a major expansion within the next four years.” “We’ve built the company round a culture of teamwork, a family culture where we all help each other, and the client benefits.” “It’s this culture that has brought us our success so far and allows us to look at setting up a new factory on Broadlands Road, Tauhara, Taupo, to replace the present premises.” “The new plant, on which we hope to start the building in about two years, will employ around 60 people in a 4000m2 factory on a 9000m2 site.” Chris says the Cosana NZ culture allows it to meet the wide-ranging demands of honey-related businesses locally and overseas. “We’re a one-stop-shop, procuring honey for our clients and managing the supply chain from packaging and labelling to export and logistics. “If you want to sell honey in Afghanistan you could go out there and set up a shop, and after we’ve sorted out all the transport and border details the owner will receive shipments of his product right to the door.” “We’ve not been greatly troubled by import and export controls because we’ve got to know the ins and outs of trade, even in these times of global turmoil,” Chris says. Cosana NZ utilises everything that a beehive produces, including pollen and venom, and processes it into everything from lozenges and lip balm to mouth sprays and gummies. “We’ve built the company round a culture of teamwork, a family culture where we all help each other, and the client benefits.”
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