New Zealand-based lifestyle brand Ethique has halted production of its home-cleaning concentrates, saying it was no longer commercially viable – and rivals were doing a better job. 

In a message to customers posted on its website, the Kiwi company said there had been an “explosion of household cleaning concentrates” in the market during the past two years and found it cannot produce them in the same price range as other companies are selling them due to the choices they make with ingredients, packaging, and sourcing.

“Most of them are small tablets you simply drop into a bottle of water, shake, and voila – you have made a cleaning product.”

Brianne West founded the brand in her kitchen in Christchurch in 2012, and since its inception, it has been available in 24 markets and more than 6500 retailers worldwide with a range of plastic-free products for the face, hair, body, and home. 

As a pioneer in the sustainable personal care sector, the label extended its range to home cleaning concentrates in 2020. The products come in bar form, are packed in paper, and dissolved in boiling water in an existing container before use.

Ethique said that during its NPD (new product development) process, its first checkpoint was to ask itself, “Is someone else already doing this better and as sustainably as we could?”

“Ethique’s goal has always been to displace more wasteful products with fairer, kinder, and more sustainable alternatives,” the company said. 

“However, Ethique recognises that other companies in the market are doing a great job at developing these products.”