Instilling a Market Need for Melrose, Naturally
Bringing a homegrown natural health brand to an overseas market by zeroing in on its natural and long-lasting benefits.
Established in 1979, Melrose was established in Australia after an inspired idea from chemist Geoff Steinicke: while medicine gets more expensive, could healthier food and products act as a preventative?
Founding the company and naming it after the street he grew up in, Steinicke’s mission of ‘eat your way to health’ became the cornerstone for Melrose’soffering, their product range including vitamins, oils and supplement powders, as well as natural herbal shampoos.
The brand became a staple in health food stores across Australia and, as interest in healthy living developed, some products even began appearing onto supermarket shelves. By 1990, Melrose had begun exporting to Singapore and Malaysia. In 2010, Andrew Douglass bought the business, and while it continued to be well-known in Australia, Andrew and his team were, having difficulty engaging with the overseas Chinese market, and communicating what set Melrose apart from other health brands.
This is where Access Corporate Group came in: Melrose approached the company in 2017, hoping to benefit from their extensive Chinese market knowledge and local insights.
The appetite for health-related products in China was strong but, as Andrew had found, the market was crowded with competing brands making similar claims. Access knew credibility was key, tapping into the brand’s Australian heritage and the proven effectiveness of its products in delivering better health over around 40 years. The Melrose commitment to product innovation and healthy and naturally derived ingredients was also critical, and Access believed combining these factors would position Melrose to give the brand a strong competitive advantage.
Access engaged a number of their influential Key Opinion Consumers from the Access Brand Management network to introduce Melrose to the market, each producing a range of educational and advocacy activities on popular social, print and television channels.
As a result, the overseas market responded overwhelmingly positively. The success was much more than Melrose could have anticipated, and took the brand beyond China and into other markets. Melrose is now stocked in nearly 400 offline stores, and sold in more than 20 countries, while the total GMV for Melrose grew 271% between the years of 2018 and 2019. Melrose is one of the top performing brands in the Access portfolio, with even greater sales forecasted and more product innovation coming in the future.