New Zealand skin care lines goes American

Said to be one of New Zealand's oldest and most popular skin care lines, Parrs is an Auckland-based company that has been making skin care creams lotions and soaps for over 50 years. It claims that a big surge in North American tourists visiting the country in the past few years has led to increasing interest in their products, spurred on by the fact that many tourists are buying the products to take home with them to share with family and friends. The company believes that the big attraction for Americans is the fact that many of the products contain native ingredients that are unique to New Zealand. These include Manuka honey, a honey that is said to contain anti-bacterial properties and healing properties derived from the Manuka bush, a native plant that grows throughout the country and has been used by the Maori people in medicines for thousands of years. In addition to Manuka honey, the skin care lines also include Lanolin, Paua, thermal mud, Roorua spa and Tea Tree oil - native-sourced ingredients that form a part of the major switch towards natural-based products. This switch to natural and organic has led to one of the most significant growth trends in the personal care market of late, causing double digit growth in the US market over the past few years. Its popularity with North Americans has resulted in a distribution agreement with Wonders Down Under, a company based in Southern California that will distribute the product lines in both the United States and Canada. "We have already established a distributor supply chain to serve the European marketplace and are now pleased to have a North American distribution channel," said Nick Ewart, managing director of New Zealand Beauty Limited, the company that exports Parrs skincare products around the world.