Common Unity

What Common Unity does

Common Unity Project Aotearoa is a community-led, non-profit organization headquartered in Lower Hutt, New Zealand, operating in the Wellington region (Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui). It began as a community māra kai (food garden) at a local kura (school) over ten years ago and has since expanded into a portfolio of community programs centred on The ReMakery site at 310 Waiwhetu Road, Fairfield. Its stated mission is to connect and empower the community through creativity, sustainability, and kai (food). Governance rests with a volunteer Board of Trustees that includes representation from local iwi (Waiwhetu Marae, Te Runanganui o Te Atiawa), Hutt City Council, and senior commercial executives in investment, digital, and chartered accounting disciplines.

The commercial surface is a Shopify-powered online store (Common Unity Shop, commonunityproject.org.nz) selling handmade goods across collections: Clothing (wool and crochet vests, baby apparel), Home (aprons, wool hot water bottle covers, beeswax wraps), and Grocery (jams, chutneys, Beeple honey). Products are made by community collectives — the Sew Good Collective for textiles and the Beeple Honey Collective for honey — using recycled materials where applicable. The ReMakery Koha Cafe and Kitchen provides a physical community hub and secondary retail touchpoint. All sales are one-time purchases transacted in NZD at unit prices between NZD $7 and NZD $99; Visa and Mastercard are the disclosed payment methods; donations are accepted separately.

The business model is a hybrid of community non-profit and direct-to-consumer e-commerce. Revenue streams are product sales (handmade goods) and donations, with no subscription, recurring, or wholesale channels disclosed. Go-to-market is direct-to-consumer via the Shopify storefront, supplemented by community-led growth through volunteer programs, the Koha Cafe, and grassroots engagement in Wellington. Technology is limited to Shopify and an email newsletter; there is no API, mobile app, or proprietary software layer. No external funding rounds, M&A activity, patents, or third-party investor backing have been disclosed.

Name

Common Unity

Legal name

Common Unity Shop

Website

https://commonunityproject.org.nz

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Common Unity Project Aotearoa is a Wellington-region community non-profit that operates community programs (Sew Good Collective, Beeple Honey Collective, Urban Kai Farms, Compost and Mulchery) and sells handmade, recycled-material goods and local food products through a Shopify online store and The ReMakery Koha Cafe.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Handmade Sustainable Goods

NAICS

Apparel Accessories and Other Apparel Manufacturing (3159), Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Retailers (459130), Home Furnishings Retailers (44912)

SIC

Retail-Apparel & Accessory Stores (5600), Apparel & Other Finishd Prods Of Fabrics & Similar Matl (2300), Canned, Fruits, Veg, Preserves, Jams & Jellies (2033)

akta.pro primary industry

Fair Trade & Ethical Supply Chains (Certification, Traceability, Producer Support) (BPAGALAL)

akta.pro secondary industry

Sustainable / Ethical Apparel & Accessories Wholesale (CRAOADAJ)

Keywords

• Handmade clothing
• Recycled material goods
• Community nonprofit
• Local food products
• Sustainable crafts

Headquarters

HQ city

Lower Hutt

HQ country

New Zealand

HQ region

Oceania

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Product Sales - Handmade Goods: E-commerce sales of handmade clothing, accessories, and home goods made from recycled materials. Products include wool vests, crochet items, bags, aprons, and beeswax wraps.
2. Product Sales - Food Items: Sales of locally produced food products including jams, chutneys, and honey from the Beeple honey collective.
3. Donations: Community donations to support the nonprofit mission of connecting and empowering communities through creativity and sustainability.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

Common Unity Project Aotearoa operates a Shopify-powered online store selling handmade clothing, accessories, home goods and locally produced food items (jams, chutneys, honey) crafted by community collectives from 100% recycled materials. Alongside retail sales, it runs community programs including the ReMakery Koha Cafe and Kitchen, Sew Good Collective, Beeple Honey Collective, Urban Kai Farms, and Compost and Mulchery in the Wellington region of New Zealand.

Product overview

Common Unity Project Aotearoa operates as a community-powered organization connecting and empowering communities through creativity, sustainability, and kai (food). The offering consists of a retail e-commerce store powered by Shopify selling handmade goods across four main product lines: Clothing (vests, crochet items, baby items), Home goods (aprons, hot water bottle covers, beeswax wraps), and Grocery (feijoa products, jams, honey). Products are made by community collectives including the Sew Good Collective (sewing) and Beeple Honey Collective (beekeeping). The organization also runs physical community projects including the ReMakery Koha Cafe and Kitchen, Urban Kai Farms, and Compost and Mulch operations, serving communities throughout Te Upoko o te Ika a Māui, New Zealand.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Clothing Collection

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationShopify powers the Common Unity e-commerce store, providing the platform infrastructure for online sales, payment processing, and order management. The privacy policy explicitly references Shopify's privacy policy and consumer privacy policy for data processing related to the online store.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Allbirds: New Zealand-origin sustainable apparel/footwear brand selling globally via DTC e-commerce. Comparable on NZ provenance, sustainability positioning, recycled/natural material sourcing, and DTC Shopify-style distribution — though at vastly greater scale and scope.
• The Body Shop: Long-established social-enterprise beauty/retail brand with ethical sourcing and community-trade supply chains. Comparable as a values-driven, ethical-sourcing retailer that monetizes mission through product sales; differs in product category and scale.
• EcoStore: Established NZ brand producing and retailing eco-friendly household and personal care products. Comparable on the sustainability-and-local provenance axis and on selling through NZ retail/e-commerce channels, though at significantly larger scale and with a different product mix.
• Patagonia: Global sustainable apparel and outdoor goods brand with strong recycled-materials credentials. Comparable on the recycled-fabric, sustainability-led DTC positioning; differs in scale, geography, and product category breadth.

Others

• Buy Nothing Project: Global community-based gifting and reuse network. Comparable on the community-empowerment and material-reuse ethos underpinning Common Unity's recycled-material products, though it operates as a sharing platform rather than a retail operation.
• Forest & Bird: New Zealand conservation nonprofit with overlapping community-volunteer infrastructure and donor base. Comparable as a NZ mission-driven nonprofit with a volunteer governance model; differs in that it sells conservation membership rather than handmade goods.
• Etsy: Global online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods. Comparable as the dominant marketplace channel for the kind of small-batch handmade apparel, accessories, and home goods Common Unity produces, though Common Unity sells via its own Shopify storefront.

Regional players

• Keep Cup: New Zealand-origin reusable-products brand with strong sustainability positioning and DTC distribution. Comparable as a NZ-based sustainable goods brand using similar channels (Shopify DTC) and emphasizing reusable/circular design; differs in product category.

Direct peers

• Trade Aid: New Zealand-based nonprofit fair trade retailer selling ethically sourced apparel, home goods, and food across multiple store locations. Closest analogue: similar nonprofit/DTC retail model, ethical supply chain positioning, and multi-category handmade/sustainable product range.

Emerging players

• Auckland Community Fruit & Vege Co-op: NZ community-led cooperative producing and distributing local food. Comparable on the community-organization model, local-food production angle (akin to Urban Kai Farms and Beeple Honey), and grassroots kaupapa, though focused on produce rather than crafts.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/commonunitynz

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Common Unity