Kiwi retailer HealthPost buys two Australian competitors after parent company's insolvency

New Zealand natural health and beauty products retailer HealthPost has snapped up two Australian competitors after their parent company went broke.

Australian retailers Flora & Fauna and Nourished Life became available after their owner BWX Digital went into receivership last month.

The deal is in partnership with the founder of Flora and Fauna, Julie Mathers, and reached an agreement with BWX's receivers KPMG, for an undisclosed sum.

BWX acquired Flora & Fauna for more than $A27 million in 2021, and Nourished Life for about $A20m in 2017.

HealthPost is the family business of the Butler family in Golden Bay.

The company sells goods to Australia online, but the deal marks its first physical presence across the Tasman.

HealthPost chief executive Abel Butler said it was a good opportunity saying he believed the benefits outweighed the risks and sensed an opportunity.

He acknowledged Flora & Fauna and Nourished Life had been through a "tough time" lately, but he felt it was more related to the cash issues at parent BWX.

"I think the history of these two brands largely speaks for itself. They were both previously really successful and had grown to a significant size in tens of millions of sales," Butler said.

"We see every opportunity to bring them back to where they were, rather than seeing it as a crowded market.

"Because of recent events, we see it as a market with lots of space for expansion and for us to apply the things we do best in our home market here in New Zealand and in Australia as well."

HealthPost currently has an annual turnover of $35m and expects the new acquisitions will expand its customer base from about 200,000 to more than 600,000 customers.

On owning Flora & Fauna again, Mathers said it was "right to be part of this".

"There is a lot of work to do and we will be working at speed to get F&F back up and running as soon as we can," she said.