2020 In Review ... what a year!

2020! What a year it has been! …a year like no other and one that will leave a mark on us all. Sorry this is a long one from me, but we have so many to thank and so much gratitude for all the people that make what we do at NE possible – thank you! 

Not since WWII have we experienced what COVID-19 and 2020 have challenged the world with – nothing could have prepared us for the casualties and suffering, incredible pressure on essential services, industries and communities being closed, businesses being destroyed for no fault of their own, jobs lost, movement restrictions and isolation, unprecedented raw material shortages, packaging shortages, home schooling, travel restrictions and more … life as we knew it changed with no warning. 

BUT we saw some incredible positive things come of 2020 too – we witnessed our immense capacity for resilience, courage, resourcefulness, collaboration, inclusion, kindness, and persistence.

It is truly an honour to be part of this industry, seeing how we pulled together to keep each other moving forward when growers lost sales for their harvest and manufacturers took more than needed and created new products. We saw manufacturers work with growers to diversify and create retail products. We saw brands share packaging and ingredients to help each other stay in production. We saw Skype/Zoom/Teams connect us all – working from home with our kids in the background. We saw companies innovating and changing direction. We saw how important services like our couriers are. We saw with new lenses what was important. We saw opportunities for new conversations and inclusion. We had to adapt and together we have. 

We are taking a few lessons we've learned into the new year:

1. Obstacles are opportunities - think outside of the box!

2. Stay Connected and be kind - where ideas are born and future opportunities are nurtured. Share, ask, listen. Collaboration creates greatness.

3. Ruin can be the gift of transformation - loss or endings are the steps to the beginning of new journeys. We continue to be inspired by those who have reinvented themselves.

4. Nature never gives up - it isn’t an option, it doesn’t surrender, it is always building for the future of the next generation, not the now.

5.  All the answers we need are all around us in Nature - We need to be conscious consumers, brand owners and manufacturers. We need to do better for our planet and people, and quickly. 

Like many, we have worked weekends, long hours and can’t believe what we have achieved in the chaos of 2020. We continue to innovate new standards of natural ingredients, grow our client services, engineer new technology, expand new indigenous partners and collaborate with disruptive brands to drive the A-Beauty story … we are grateful to be able to work with you - some of the most conscious and innovative individuals and we want to thank you for being part of our 2020 – a new record year for us!

Without you, our success would not be possible, our relationships and nature are what drives our innovation 

2020 Achievements

• Engineered New Machinery and designed new protocols for oil soluble and nutrient dense ingestible ingredient ranges
• Received food and beverage certification
• All 3 labs fully operational
• Tripled production capacity
• Native EssenXces ingestible ingredient range hit new milestones, including ESS Kakadu Plum, which harnessed 16,000mg/100g of natural Vit C in a liquid.
• Created the world’s next Blue essential oil – Rainforest Blue
• Refreshed existing brand formulations and assisted in creating many new brands.
• Continued growing Indigenous-owned brands through our Mentorship program
• Completed infield/salon trials for Natural Phyto-Compounds for Hair + Scalp Care
• Continued commitment to conscious manufacturing. Using rain-harvested water helped save over 170,000L of water from the public supply, (the equivalent to an Olympic size swimming pool!).
• Engineered and Implemented new technology targeting microbes at the biomass level
• Expanded our presence in the USA
• Expanded our technical team to extend our extraction methodologies for new natural ranges

2021 … here we come!

• New Website 
• New tool kits for brands and distributors
• Launching the Native Incubator Group
• New Distributor in Europe and APAC
• Building new offices and the team
• Launching a global partner in the Food & Beverage sector
• New technology
• Expansion of Growers and their connection to brands 
• The Native Garden program
• Launch of Native EssenXces Range
• Blue Oil commercialised globally
• New partnerships
• 4 new international distributors!

2020, you have been tough but it has prepared us all for bigger things in 2021.  Enjoy your break, get some rest, best wishes to you and your family, and look forward to an exciting 2021.

Best wishes,

Lisa Carroll & The Native Extracts Team