Pablo Kraus

Pablo Kraus is the group chief executive of Ecostore, the New Zealand sustainable home and personal-care brand founded more than 30 years ago and now sold across Australasia and into Asia.

Kraus was born in Germany and grew up on Auckland’s North Shore. He was working as a web developer when he was shoulder-tapped by his father, ecostore co-founder Malcolm Rands, to join the family business. He became a director and, about two and a half years later, took over as group CEO, a role that now spans ecostore, organics retailer Huckleberry Farms and organic food manufacturer Chantal Organics.

Under Kraus’s leadership, ecostore has continued to push its sustainability credentials. The brand pioneered sugar-plastic packaging made from renewable sugarcane, became B Corp certified in 2021 and set ambitious targets to tackle plastic pollution, joining the New Zealand Plastic Packaging Declaration and the global “A Line in the Sand” commitment. Its products are now staples in households from New Zealand and Australia to China and Japan.

Kraus’s profile is noteworthy because he has taken an established New Zealand sustainability brand and extended its reach and rigour, proving that ecostore’s founding philosophy, safe ingredients, honest packaging, minimal environmental impact, can scale commercially without compromise.

Pablo features in our look at how New Zealand brands break out globally.

Sources: BusinessDesk · The Spinoff · Ecostore