Back in 1997, Jenny Agnew, our Managing Director had some rare free time on her hands as she travelled in Europe. Inspired by the beautiful soaps and skincare she discovered in stores the length and breadth of Italy and France, she hit on the idea of a special range of New Zealand-inspired soaps and skincare.
The specialty soap market was booming overseas and hadn’t yet made it to New Zealand. Always keen to be ahead of the crowd, she began at the kitchen table experimenting with New Zealand plant extracts to create a range of unique products inspired by the flora of this beautiful country.
Juggling a successful university lectureship with a family and business got a little hard to manage as the soaps and lotions she created started flying out the door. Teaching’s loss was our gain and Pacifica Skincare was off and running. (Her family, by the way, are incredibly important to her!)
Since then Pacifica Skincare has become one of New Zealand’s leading companies, creating gorgeous skincare and home wares. Pacifica Skincare products are sold throughout New Zealand and increasingly offshore in markets as diverse as the USA and Japan. We think that our appeal comes from a passionate commitment to celebrating the special properties of New Zealand flora and also to harnessing the creativity that flourishes in our tight-knit team.
The walls of the Pacifica showroom are papered with the exquisite hand-rendered artwork created by Catherine Melo, our exceptionally clever and talented in-house designer.
Together with our long-standing customer service and sales and marketing team, Jenny and Catherine work to continuously develop exquisite new products and to explore new opportunities here and overseas. We have just completed a three year supply agreement to Air New Zealand creating a bespoke range for the airline’s Premium passengers – Pacifica Organics. That’s a great achievement for a company that started out on the kitchen table!
