A P R I L 2 0 2 3 Night Fever Stargazing Aotearoa Cask Masters Wine in a box gets classy Treat Yourself Wellington wellness escapes State of wonder Welcome to Tasmania A I R N E W Z E A L A N D I N F L I G H T M A G A Z I N E BACK IN 1993, Mark Sorenson wrote a school essay about the issue of plastic packaging. “It shows we’ve been thinking about this problem for a while,” he says. “I got 20/20 for it, even though there were quite a few spelling errors.” In the time since, plastic pollution and environmental degradation has only become worse. But Sorenson, and Cleanery co-founder Ellie Brade, are confident they’ve found a way to help reduce it – by taking cleaning products out of plastic and taking water out of cleaning products. The range of eco-friendly, sustainable household cleaning products comes in sachets, to which you add water in reusable containers. Last year, Cleanery products were available in fewer than 10 stores in New Zealand and through its website; now they are available in more than 1500 stores across Australia and New Zealand. One of the company’s goals is to have “impact at scale”, she says, and that doesn’t happen if you’re running a cottage industry or selling high-priced eco products, so the next big step is to launch Cleanery products in the US. “It’s never going to be easy going to a big market like that, but what we have is some great case studies,” Sorenson says, whether it’s the rapid sales growth in New Zealand supermarkets, or the repeat sales they have from their online customers. Cleaning products are typically a low-engagement category, says Brade. “So it’s cool that anyone buys them online at all to be honest.” And the primary reason for that loyalty, she believes, is that the products they’ve developed are environmentally friendly, e ff ective and a ff ordable. “While people like the idea of a green or sustainable product, they ditch it pretty quickly if it doesn’t work,” she says. Sorenson says, “You can very easily and objectively demonstrate how well cleaning products work. You can show it visually and it’s night and day between us and many other eco products.” He says Cleanery’s sachets create 99 percent less waste than a plastic bottle, which is mostly made up of water. The production process is also designed to be lean and energy e " cient. “Our factory uses less energy than our family home,” says Brade. They also designed the factory to be replicable in other markets, to reduce shipping emissions. “All of our investors and advisors are there to push us towards high growth,” Sorenson says. And a time-honoured way of doing that is to expand the range. The company is currently trialling a powdered dishwashing liquid with some customers and has entered the personal care market with a handwash; there are also plans for body wash and haircare. Sorenson says it was di " cult to create a handwash that thickened up quickly and consistently to make a nice liquid gel after adding water. While Cleanery’s target market is individual shoppers, the commercial cleaning and hospitality industry has also taken an interest in the powders, and Cleanery Professional, which o ff ers hospital-grade cleaning products and sanitisers in larger quantities, is a growing part of its business. “Commercial cleaners know how well The clean Environmentally friendly, effective and affordable, Cleanery is taking cleaning powder to the people of Aotearoa and expanding beyond our shores. S TO RY B E N F A H Y Business Enterprise 88 Kia Ora !! It’s the way of the future. So I hope we can make that transition easy for people. !! P H OTO G R A P H Y M AT T C R AW FO R D 1. Cleanery uses plant and mineral- based formulations. 2. Co-founders Mark Sorenson and Ellie Brade. 3. The cleaning and personal care products come in powdered form 4. Head of engineering, Dave Hassell and Sorenson at the company’s low- emissions plant in Auckland. products work,” says Sorenson. “We’re solving di ff erent problems for this industry. It’s around convenience and safety, rather than cost. There is less space required for the big drums that you need to dispose of, and our formulations are very safe, so it requires less protective gear and it’s better for the health and safety of the workforce.” Sorenson, who has a background in engineering and finance, previously worked for the Government’s innovation arm Callaghan Innovation and advised a number of start-ups. “But nothing prepares you for it other than doing it. The first thing you do is you start to make all the mistakes you told people not to make. And you also realise it’s a whole lot more emotional than you can see from the outside. But it’s also a lot more rewarding.” One piece of advice he did follow, however, was to protect the company’s intellectual property, and because it manufactures in its own factory and doesn’t use external suppliers, he’s confident it can keep its formulas secret and innovate more quickly than the competition. When the business kicked o ff , around two years ago, they had two small kitchen mixers in the corner of a huge “pilot factory” in Avondale, West Auckland. That was scary, Brade says, but they always planned to grow into it. With its new equipment, the plant can make around 100,000 sachets a week, which is enough capacity for Australia, New Zealand and, all going to plan, the US. In a few years, Brade believes we will look back at the supermarket aisles full of cleaning and personal care products in single-use plastic bottles, and cringe. She thinks governments will regulate plastic usage; already supermarkets are starting to push suppliers to reduce their environmental impact. “They can see it’s the way of the future,” says Brade. “So I hope we can make that transition easy for people. It’s encouraging to see people being so open-minded.” cleanery.co.nz 1 2 3 4 5 April 2023 89