“This business model has broken down all barriers to entry because of the way you structured your U.S. business,” said Carly Marriott, Director of Commercialization for Mānuka Health.

One of nature’s most captivating medicines is the product of a seemingly simple relationship. For just a few weeks each year, the New Zealand mānuka tree explodes with white blossoms, drawing thousands of hives filled with honeybees to collect nectar and craft mānuka honey.

Indigenous people knew its value for centuries before it was used in hospital settings in the early 2000s to overpower antibiotic-resistant superbugs, and researchers discovered why: its bioactive compound has antioxidant, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Today, via Coupang’s Riverside Fulfillment Center, it swiftly makes its way to families using it for a myriad of reasons – including the high-potency MGO 573 for its antioxidant properties – to its U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved use for wound dressings. 

CEO Alex Turnbull noted that if there’s a market that really cares about credible, sustainable, traceable, natural, beauty and wellness products – it’s Korea – which welcomes Mānuka Health as a U.S. export.

“Coupang has been an accelerator, and its model works really, really well,” he said. “It’s grown from strength to strength.”

Mānuka Health ships to Coupang’s Riverside, CA Fulfillment Center and then quickly exports from the U.S. to the South Korean market for delivery, typically within one to three days.

The symbiotic relationship between mānuka trees and the company’s 21,000 bee hives is protected and nurtured by Mānuka Health – and Turnbull is carrying on the legacy of the company’s founders. “I became pretty obsessed by understanding the science, composition and medical side of the products,” said Turnbull, who himself is a scientist and chemical engineer. “I’ve always had a very strong view that nature does know best.”

“We go where the mānuka tree grows best, which is in the middle of nowhere. It’s a mission and a half to get there,” Turnbull said. “Our honey is unique, and it’s not cheap, but the benefits people get from it certainly have them telling us that it’s worth every cent, especially because we are unapologetically focused on having the highest quality standards, and you can trace any product that you buy almost to the beehive from where it came.”