With the risk of recession growing by the day, many businesses are looking at how to survive the coming months. One businessman who knows all about growth through adversity is Comvita co-founder Alan Bougen.

Today, his honey and health products business has a turnover of around $200 million. But it all started in a Te Puke basement with Alan and co-founder Claude Stratford in 1974. Despite a 40 year age gap, the pair found they were kindred spirits with their love of honey as a health product, and Comvita was born in 1974.

But just as they were starting to take off internationally, the 1987 crash hit.

“We were paying 18 per cent for overdraft money, we were trying to capitalise the business by borrowing money, we had everything on the line all the time, they were tough times. We got to the 87 crash, we thought we’d lost it all”.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case, and they limped through. “It was touch and go. We got to 1989 and we decided a restructure of the business was necessary, and I funded two partners out of it, so by the time 1990 came, my wife and I had a 75 per cent share. It was make or break, and we had to make this thing work."

The 87 crash wasn’t the first time they’d used global events as a growth opportunity. In 1985, New Zealand was declared nuclear free. Claude and Alan started branding their products as ‘honey from nuclear free NZ” which got their brand known internationally. Then, after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986, there was fear about radiation in the food chain, so honey from New Zealand became even more attractive.

After the stock market crash, it was ground-breaking research that really helped them turn a corner. Waikato University was doing research on honey types, and finding that strains of Manuka honey was of particular interest. That was 1991, “and set us on an incredible path through the 90s”.

You can hear more about Alan Bougen’s Comvita story, in the HP Business Class Podcast here.