As many of you will know, Lyn was involved with SBN for many years, as both a member of our Network and for a short time as part of our team. She pioneered an award-winning business in a sector resistant to change. She cared deeply about regenerative solutions. She was full of kindness, compassion and had energy to burn.
Lyn originally trained as a vet and believed strongly in feeding cats and dogs a diet as close as possible to their natural diet for optimum health. Based on that premise, she founded Raw Essentials in 2007. The company supplied healthy and ethically-sourced meat, grown and processed in Aotearoa New Zealand and traceable from field to freezer.
The business took off, and in 2012 won the Emerging Small Business Award in the NZI National Sustainable Business Network Awards. It was also a finalist in our 2015 and 2016 Awards and you can read its finalist story here. Since then, the company has gone from strength to strength and now has eight stores in Auckland and one in Hamilton, with vet clinics at two locations.
In recent years, since selling the business, Lyn turned her attention to regenerative agriculture. She worked at SBN for several months from 2019-2020 as our Regenerative Agriculture project lead. She was extremely passionate about this. During this time, she penned her thoughts on regenerative agriculture for the FMCG Business Leaders Forum.
We are so sad that Lyn is no longer with us. She will be remembered for many things and for us it is her compassion and passion, her kindness and authenticity. She was truly a sustainable business pioneer and a role model for many.
Our thoughts are with her whanau and friends.
Aroha mai
Haere rā Lyn