As seen in The Post: how AI got Good Change back on track
We're in The Post, The Press and the Waikato Times today. Stuff's Aimee Shaw sat down with Stine for her Small Business Project column and asked the questions we don't usually get asked in public - so here's the story behind the story.
Know your numbers, down to the unit
"Know your numbers," Stine told Aimee Shaw. "The FMCG sector is brutal. You've got to dissect the numbers down to each individual unit." That's not a line for the sake of it. Right now, Good Change's Australian logistics partner feeds every warehousing and freight cost straight into AI, because those numbers move constantly and nobody has time to re-check a spreadsheet every week. Whatever you sell, the lesson holds: know what each unit actually costs you to make, ship and sell, not the average across the year.
Once you start making money, don't hire a team straight away
Asked what she wished she'd known before starting out, Stine's answer to Aimee Shaw was one word: cost. "It was our passion that we wanted really nice-looking and better-for-the-environment products, but we didn't realise the cost involved," she said. "Once you start making money, don't start hiring a team of staff right away." Good Change grew one product at a time, each one funded by the last, instead of borrowing against sales that hadn't happened yet. It's a slower way to grow. It's also the reason there was still a business left to save when things got hard.
Automate the expensive stuff first
Before AI, Good Change's marketing ran through an agency, a content creator and a freelance designer. Three separate suppliers, three separate invoices, every month. Stine told Aimee Shaw that setup was "costing us a fortune each month for a small company." Rather than trimming a little from each, we put an automation-first, AI-driven approach on top of the systems we already had and turned those suppliers into one. That's the part of the story we'd tell any small business owner staring at their overheads: don't shave costs everywhere a little. Find the one expensive thing you can turn into a system, and start there.
The tough 12 to 18 months
This part doesn't tidy up into a neat lesson. Two years ago, landing in Woolworths Australia felt like the big win. Then came the costs nobody had budgeted for - warehousing, freight, fuel - and the margin got thin fast. "We've since reviewed our pricing and renegotiated with some of the supermarkets, so it's been turned around. We're profitable again in Australia, but we went through a tough 12 to 18 months," Stine told Stuff's Aimee Shaw.
Somewhere in that stretch the market got very tough, and Stine and Kristy asked each other the question neither wanted to answer: do we turn the key, or do we try and get ourselves out of this? They chose to try, and that meant serious cost-cutting, including letting good people go. It was a call neither of them wanted to make. Then they put an automation-first, AI-driven approach on top of what was left. Email campaigns that used to take two days to set up now take under two hours, and as Stuff reported it, that shift has quadrupled Good Change's marketing revenue.
Still here
Good Change is still two people: Stine on marketing, systems and the AI team, Kristy on wholesale and retail relationships. Between us we're in more than 1,000 stores across New Zealand and Australia, and we're still here, still shipping, still knocking on doors when we need to. If you want to ask us anything about any of this - the numbers, the AI, the year that nearly knocked us over - our DMs and inbox are open. We mean that.
Common questions
Is Good Change still owned by Stine and Kristy?
Yes. Stine Smith and Kristy Hunter co-founded Good Change and still run it together, now with an automation-first, AI-driven approach across marketing and operations.
Where can I buy Good Change products?
Good Change is in more than 1,000 stores across New Zealand and Australia, including Foodstuffs supermarkets in New Zealand, plus online at goodchangestore.com.
What does "automation-first, AI-driven" actually mean day to day?
For Good Change it means the marketing work that used to sit with an agency, a content creator and a freelance designer now runs through one connected system, with Stine and the team directing it. The email example in this piece is typical: what took two days now takes under two hours.
Read the full story
Stuff's Small Business Project ran this Q&A with Stine on 21 September 2026, in The Post, The Press and the Waikato Times. Every quote above is from that interview, by journalist Aimee Shaw.
As it appeared in print:
