| 3 A modern twist to ancient remedies Virginia Wright The Kiwiso outlet in Xiaman - Alpha Group has been one of New Zealand’s biggest investors in China over the last two decades. BUSINESS NZ China Business Awards - Alpha Group Holdings It was well over 20 years ago that Professor Gao, renowned in China as an expert in mushrooms and fungi, first came to New Zealand. He was invited by NZ Landcare Research to come and collaborate on their research into what we could do around the cultivation of mushrooms and fungi here in New Zealand. “At the time he had been working on his own method of extracting the goodness, the polysaccharides, from mushrooms,” explains Alpha Group NZ general manager, Maggie Chen. “In particular he was really focused on a mushroom named lingzhi, which is one of the hero ingredients in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), “ says Maggie. “It’s been used for thousands of years for a variety of ailments. Anything from stress management, gut management, sleep disorders – just a whole host of different things.” Professor Gao recognized the need, and with it the opportunity, of bringing a modern approach to this ancient remedy. He wanted to get the active ingredient from the lingzhi mushroom into measurable powdered doses in a capsule format ready for a specific daily intake. This became the basis of the business he set up called Alpha Group Holdings Ltd. “He wasn’t really intending even to set up a business, he just really wanted to help people to get better health, and the business followed,” says Maggie. Alpha Group is based in New Zealand but over the last 20 years it has been one of New Zealand’s biggest investors in China. What began as a small shop set up in 1998 in Dominion Road in Auckland, where he could make the first of his capsules available to consumers, is now a vertically integrated business with infrastructure in three Chinese centres. Professor Gao is a New Zealand citizen and it’s still a New Zealand company but not surprisingly its China operation has long since outgrown that in New Zealand with more than ten times as many people working there as work here. What makes Alpha Group unique is the extent to which the business is also established in China. “It’s a fully vertical business, so we have everything from research through to finished products and selling to the consumer,” says Maggie. “We import some of the products from New Zealand and also produce some in China.” A key to Alpha Group Holdings success is the direct-to-consumer business set up in China well before the current proliferation of e-commerce platforms. “Alpha Group actually has a license in China to have this direct-to-consumer business 03 548 2741 info@forestherbs.co.nz www.kolorex.com 142 Collingwood Street, Nelson 7010 Bringing you the power of Horopito. Supporting Alpha Group Holdings “It’s a fully vertical business, so we have everything from research through to finished products and selling to the consumer.” which is very hard to get. Alpha is one of 90 companies to have a license in China, and the only one of the 32 international companies among those 90 to come from New Zealand.” Professor Gao remains very committed to New Zealand. A new Alpha Group plant is under construction in Wiri where they will be able to reproduce and extract the active ingredient from the root of the lingzhi mushroom in a controlled environment. It’s an extremely efficient way to produce one of the very “high-value” products for the export market, in this instance the health supplement market, that New Zealand needs. Through the direct-to-consumer business Alpha Group has a database of more than a million people. Wanting to do more for the New Zealand market they have recently launched the “Kiwiso” brand goods, developed with research organisations and suppliers in NZ, offering everything from skincare to baby products to a range of eco-friendly household cleaning products. Recently also they’ve realised they want to build their profile in New Zealand up and being a finalist in the Yili Group Award for Innovation in Business between China and New Zealand in the 2021 China Business Awards is a good start. Thanks to Covid they won’t know whether they’ve won until the awards can finally be held, hopefully, in April but, in the meantime, they’re delighted to be recognised for the time, effort and expertise they put into the collaboration and co-operation between the two countries. so smooth...
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