our story

Siblinghood

My brother Andrew and I grew up in a small ordinary suburb in Hamilton, New Zealand. We were always a close-knit family, Andrew and I were and still are great friends.

After school our careers took us on different paths.

The story of mahu began while I was working as a self-employed midwife in the Waikato.

Naturally women only want the best for their developing and new babies and I was frequently asked what skincare I would recommend they use during pregnancy and on their baby. I took a look at what was available and realised I was not happy recommending any.

I knew this was an area I could develop with my knowledge of pregnancy and baby, my love of well designed and beneficial skincare and my desire to make more natural and ethical choices, and so the idea of mahu was conceived.....

At the time Andrew was growing his snowboard distribution company, importing snowboards and accessories and selling them to retail stores in both New Zealand and Australia, he saw the potential in mahu and had the obvious skills in systems and logistics, and so we teamed up.




We assembled a team around us that included midwives, New Zealand cosmetic chemists along with skilled business partners Phil and Ted's.  Campbell Gower of Phil and Ted's and Mountain Buggy approached us while we were at a trade show in Birmingham, UK and asked to partner with us. With their design know how, marketing, business and export expertise we thought this was a great idea.