Prologue: The True Honey Co. Founder Jim McMillan is a man on a mission. Having long nurtured an ambition to produce and develop a primary product from nature, the Kiwi entrepreneur found the perfect subject in a monofloral honey produced from the mānuka tree, indigenous to New Zealand and parts of coastal Australia.
Just over a decade on from creating the company, now well-established at home and in key export markets including Saudi Arabia, McMillan is determined to showcase mānuka honey’s renowned health and wellbeing properties in global travel retail.
As reported, The True Honey Co. last yearlaunched a range of functional and convenient products to address the wellness needs of international air travellers.
In this fascinating interview, McMillan discusses business principles, the importance of a can-do attitude and his ambitions for a global mānuka wellness company.
Q&A
The Moodie Davitt Report: Tell us about the genesis of The True Honey Co. When was that eureka moment you decided to enter the sector?
Jim McMillan: From an early stage in life, I have had a strong interest in the role natural products can play in improving our health and wellbeing.
I grew up on a farm and have been involved in primary production for most of my life and have always held a strong desire to produce a primary product from nature and take it through to the end consumer. So, as I built my knowledge and understanding of the benefits of mānuka honey this seemed like the perfect product to fulfil my ambition.
What had you done before?
I left school at the age of 15 and entered the commercial fishing industry. By the age of 17 I had my commercial skipper’s licence and spent some ten years skippering commercial fishing boats around the NZ coast.
When I was 27, I decided I wanted a change and completed my commercial helicopter licence and started my own helicopter agricultural service. I evolved this business into one that was very focused on inputs to produce and grow high-quality nutrient-dense food products.

Ten years later I was becoming increasingly interested in mānuka honey and its health benefits from my years of flying the length and breadth of New Zealand. I was aware of numerous areas of mānuka trees growing in some of the most pristine parts of our country and also had very strong relationships with the owners of this resource.
This was where the idea was born to produce ultra-high-quality mānuka honey from these very remote parts of New Zealand and to also form strong partnerships with the owners of this resource and assist them in generating an income stream from it.

Setting up a business requires courage, vision, money and determination. Not easy. Tell us about those early days.
When I started The True Honey Co, we began with 200 beehives and one beekeeper. We were fortunate to experience some exceptional yields in our first year, which really helped accelerate the growth of the business.
It’s also worth noting that for the first few years we were primarily a producer of ultra-high-grade mānuka honey and were selling in bulk on the wholesale market, although I always had a vision and desire to create our own brand.
During our first couple of years in the mānuka industry I was working in the background building the foundations of a values-based business focused on honesty and integrity along with creating a brand that gave mānuka honey the respect it deserved.
We most certainly started to experience some challenges as we looked to transition from a honey producer to developing and growing a premium mānuka honey brand on the global stage.
The True Honey Co’s vision is to lead the world in mānuka wellness. Unlike other honeys, mānuka contains Methylglyoxal (MGO), the key compound responsible for its unique health-giving qualities. Only mānuka honey 300+ MGO and above makes it into the brand’s portfolio and, as the company points out, this is where the full wellness benefits have been proven to begin. |
When did you think you had a success story on your hands?
It was really on the back of a strong direct relationship we built with a large-scale. high-end pharmacy chain in Saudi Arabia. Our premium mānuka honey was received very well in this market and The True Honey Co. very quickly become the leading mānuka honey brand there.
Then, on the back of the success we achieved in the Saudi Arabian market, we started to gain significant interest for our products from surrounding countries.
If you had to nail down the reasons for the success, what would they be?
Resilience, determination and a belief, along with a can-do attitude. In addition, we have taken a very consumer-centric approach to all aspects of the business right from the beginning, which I believe has also served us well.
How would you describe your philosophy to business in general and The True Honey Co?
I believe the principles of business are very simple. They are about having a product or service that can solve a problem or enhance people’s lives and being able to make it conveniently available at a price that delivers value to the customer.

Greatest challenges? COVID, I suspect, but any others?
COVID certainly presented us with some significant challenges as all our packaging suppliers ceased operation while at the same time we were experiencing a significant demand for our products.
To combat this, within days we designed and built necessary equipment and hired in a significant labour force which enabled us to assemble our own packaging internally. That in turn enabled us to deliver our immunity-enhancing products at a time of our customers’ need.
Best moment?
I have had a lot of great moments but would start by saying I feel truly privileged to be able to work and produce premium mānuka honey from some of the most pristine remote parts of New Zealand.
If I was to pick one moment that I’m most proud of it would be when we gained the title of producing the highest-grade most pure mānuka honey in the world.
You remain the 100% owner. Where do you want to take the company?
I truly believe that the full extent of the benefits and uses for mānuka honey are only in the early stages of being fully discovered. It is my intention to create a global mānuka wellness company with a strong focus on improving the health and wellness of people using high-quality natural products with proven benefits.
How important are your Kiwi origins to you?
I’m most certainly proud to be a Kiwi. In saying that, I feel extremely privileged to be able to travel the globe, spending time in the market meeting and learning about different cultures and customer needs.

Tell us about your travel retail strategy, the role of the channel and your core targets?
Our strategy is simply to solve some of the problems passengers experience while travelling globally and enhance their experience.
As we are aware, while travelling we all become exposed to different bugs and viruses along with experiencing sleep issues while transiting between time zones. Some people experience anxiety or digestive issues while consuming different cuisines.
We also see premium mānuka honey as an excellent gift for travellers looking for a gift to take back home.
What range do you offer for travel retail?
Our team has developed a range of functional lozenges using premium mānuka and a variety of different natural ingredients with proven benefits to address the problems identified. The lozenge range includes Calm, Digest, Defence and Soothe.
In addition to the functional lozenges, we have our range of ultra-premium mānuka honey, including Rare Harvest products and also have a number of exciting products that are both functional and convenient launching early this year. ✈️