The headquarters of Healthpost in Collingwood in Golden Bay on New Zealand's South Island.(Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)
Healthpost is a typical Kiwi family business, with mom and or dad starting up and running the business and kids lending a helping hand.
The company packs and delivers health products ordered via mails or phone calls to customers living in New Zealand.
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This has been the situation since the company was established in 1988 in the small village of Collingwood, Golden Bay on New Zealand's South Island.
This is still part of the story, but not all.
Changes began when Abel Butler, son of HealthPost founder Linley Butler, decided to set up a website for all the products in their mail-order catalogue in 2002.
"Linley did not like the idea of e-commerce as she even hated emails," Abel Butler said.
Healthpost chairman Peter Butler said it took several months for them to persuade Linley, promising her that if this new business model worked, they could employ more people and she might not need to work as late as one o' clock in the morning to handle orders herself.
Just as Abel Butler had imagined, their natural health products appealed to customers all over the world, with orders coming in from India, Turkey, South Africa and the United States.
"We did not search for them, they searched for us," Abel Butler said.
"I guess that was because the need for natural products was growing worldwide and they searched online and they found us," he added.
Abel Butler, the web manager at first and now the CEO of Healthpost, attributed this progress to grasping the right opportunities at the right time.
"Back in 2002, there were few online retailers in the health products sector and we were the earliest and we are still the largest," he said.
"Our upstream manufacturers also grow as our markets expand and we need more," said the chairman.
"Without globalization, New Zealand could still be an isolated island country down under, but due to globalization, we could now make products manufactured in a geographically remote area accessible to almost everyone in the globe," said the CEO.
