The founder of $250 million New Zealand honey giant Comvita has credited Great Barrier Island’s Les Blackwell as the starting point of his journey into beekeeping and natural health – a path that would eventually lead to one of the country’s most recognisable wellness brands.
Alan Bougen, who co-founded Comvita in 1974 with the late Claude Stratford, spoke during the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations at its Paengaroa headquarters last month.
“Moving to Great Barrier Island, I sought help from Les Blackwell,” Bougen said. “He taught me how to re-queen the hives, introduced me to mānuka honey harvesting and taught me to use a kauri press to work the dense honey out of the comb.”
“Over the next few years, I learned the rhythms of the hive. Eventually, we got a smoker and veils – ordered by phone, delivered by barge. That’s how remote we were.”
Bougen lived on Aotea in the early 1970s, experimenting with sustainable living and immersed in what was then an emerging natural health movement. He said it was an encounter with honey’s medicinal properties – used to treat an infected wound on a horse – that shifted his focus from nutrition to healing.
“That blew my mind,” he said. “It opened up a whole new world, using honey not just for nutrition, but for healing.”
That moment led him to write to the return address on a honey jar. He quickly received a response from Claude Stratford, a 65-year-old herbalist and lifelong beekeeper then living in Paengaroa.
“Dear Alan,” Stratford wrote. “You could be an answer to prayer. Come quickly.”
Bougen borrowed money from his parents, travelled to the Bay of Plenty, and joined Stratford in founding Comvita—a company that began with modest natural remedies and today sells honey, lozenges, and skincare products in over a dozen countries.
“From such small, humble beginnings, we’ve built a strong, beautiful New Zealand brand on full display these days in some of the finest retail sites around the world,” Bougen said.
Stratford passed away in 2013, just shy of his 103rd birthday. “Despite life’s many trials, Claude never lost his generosity, his optimism, his unwavering belief in the healing power of nature and his faith in God,” Bougen said.
After helping set Bougen on his path, Les Blackwell inspired the creation of the Great Barrier Island Bee Co – a wildly successful skincare range built around mānuka honey.
The line includes products made with beeswax, royal jelly, propolis, shea butter, and sweet almond oil.
Packaging was modelled on the tins once used to export his honey from the island aboard the Rosella – the Blackwell family boat known locally as the “Honey Boat.” Those tins were packed into hot-stamped wooden crates and shipped to the mainland.
Fifty cents from every sale of Les Blackwell’s Gardener’s Hand Cream is donated annually to local Great Barrier Island community and environmental charities.
