The Sunspirit story begins in 1975 when David and Melanie Dane moved to the far north coast of NSW to live out their dream of love, surf, sunshine and plant medicine. David had completed his training as a herbal chemist and borrowed $2,500 from the bank. David remembers: "We converted the bathroom into a distillery by throwing an old door over the bath, and sitting three brand new stills on top of it!"

In 1976 the Danes moved to a 240-acre farm outside of Byron Bay - converting the old dairy building into a laboratory and licensed distillery.
"Apart from contract manufacturing, we grew culinary herbs for the local restaurant trade and started doing 1:1 extracts from herbs we grew, to make them into ointments. We also dried herbs such as lemongrass, comfrey, spearmint and peppermint that we sold as teas."

David worked two other jobs to help pay the bills, while Melanie, who was pregnant with their second child, painstakingly hand painted each and every product label!

In the late 1970s the name Sunspirit was adopted and the Danes started selling their 'healing oils' and ointments to the public. The response from some of the local stores was unenthusiastic telling them that 'oils just don't sell'.

Far from discouraged, Melanie undertook a huge education campaign that continues today. Her hand drawn posters where displayed in health food stores and customers purchased them as decorative items for the backs of bathroom doors. Eventually, and contrary to opinion, the oils did begin to sell.

By 1985 the Sunspirit range of oils was in health food shops and pharmacies around Australia. David and Melanie, now parenting four children, took on their first two staff. Distributors were contracted in each state and the company began exporting its products. "At this point Sunspirit was making its way and there was no need for second jobs. Melanie could stop handpainting labels and we could print them properly and even get them glossed and gold foiled,"David remembers. "We were living life on a totally new level!"

Sunspirit outgrew its idyllic farm location in 1989 and moved to rented premises on Byron Bay Arts and Industrial Estate. "It was a big change for us - we weren't a cottage industry anymore and we had to get a grip on the real world of business," David says. "After selling shares in the company to raise capital, we built a brand new factory and in 1992 the doors opened for full-scale production".

By 1995 the company expanded employing sixteen staff. David and Melanie were filled with great hopes for the future in their 20th year of business. Then, on Saturday February 11, 1995 fate dealt Sunspirit a mighty blow. At 2am the Danes were informed that a fire had broken out in their prized new factory. When they arrived on the scene there were firemen in full force and a crowd gathering to watch. Every now and then a drum of oil would explode with flames shooting high into the sky.

"It was a night I will never forget! I remember wanting to just dive into the gravel in the carpark to try and swim in it," David says with tears welling, "the frustration was so enormous!!"… "After four hours of intense blaze, the building was finally destroyed. It was just a mass of melted glass and metal. Melanie continues: "We were devastated. Finally, just when the hard work was paying off and with a fantastic staff to help us, Sunspirit was all gone. We were tempted to throw it all away."

But it meant too much. Devastated but undeterred, by the following Monday the Danes had bought filing cabinets, hired mobile phones for the core staff they were able to retain and reorganised their family living room into a temporary office.

Miraculously, the company salvaged its computer records, retrieving them from the small fireproof safe. Two pharmaceutical companies were immediately contracted to manufacture on a temporary basis and within ten days Sunspirit had a limited range of products back on the shelves.

"With the help of our dedicated employees, we beat the odds and slowly rebuilt the Sunspirit name and product range."

One year to the day from the disastrous fire, a new state-of-the-art factory was opened by Australian long distance swimming champion, Shelley Taylor-Smith. The new facility, complete with the latest pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment has since gained ISO 9002 accreditation.

Today Sunspirit exports to Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Canada, Russia and New Zealand. Their Aromatherapy booklet has sold more than 150,000 copies and was recently translated into Russian in response the market demand.

David and Melanie are still actively involved as Managing Director and Director with the daily running of the company's affairs - ensuring that the original philosophy behind Sunspirit is as strong as ever.
Reflecting on these sentiments, David affirms "Knowing that people were entrusting their health to our products has always been in the focus of our business - delivering the highest in quality and service is only part of the equation."