Mark Yates | Kine Australia

Mark Yates is the founder and Managing Director of Kine Australia, an Australian brand making plant-based, plastic-free, biodegradable cloths and wipes for body, hands, face, surfaces and pets. Launched in 2024 with a range of certified-flushable body and baby wipes, the brand has expanded in 2026 with four new SKUs across hand, pet, surface and makeup removal, all manufactured locally and built on the same plant-based formulation.

The aisle moment

I started Kine because of a moment in a supermarket aisle.

I had been buying the same wet wipes for years, the same brand my family used every day. One day I actually read the back of the pack. Imported. Mostly water and plastic-based fibres. The product had travelled across the world before it ever reached my Adelaide kitchen drawer.

I looked across the rest of the shelf. Most of it was the same story. There were a handful of Australian-made alternatives, but they were poorly marketed and largely invisible at point of sale. If I could not find them easily when looking, the average shopper had no chance.

A career that prepared me for this

Before Kine, I was a founding director of SILK Laser Clinics. We grew the business from a single Adelaide clinic into a national chain, and the company went on to list on the ASX. Eight years inside a consumer personal care and beauty business taught me what customers in this category pay attention to. How a product or service feels on skin. Whether it does what it says it will. Whether it earns a repeat visit or a repeat purchase. Whether it fits naturally into a daily or weekly routine. The fundamentals of personal care are not new, but they are easy to underestimate.

Alongside SILK, I spent more than twenty years in engineering, advanced manufacturing and program delivery. This included a manufacturing scale-up project where we increased factory output by a multiple of five within three years and stood up an Australian supply chain to support it.

Two threads, one product. SILK taught me what customers in this category actually look for, and what earns their trust over time. Manufacturing and program delivery taught me that none of that matters unless you can execute consistently. Process discipline, quality control, supply chain management, the standards work behind certifications like AS/NZS 5328: those are the disciplines that take a good product idea and turn it into something you can deliver, batch after batch, to the level customers expect. Kine sits at the intersection of those two worlds: a technically rigorous personal care product that people actually use and enjoy every day.

Building the product

A wipe sounds simple. It is not.

A wipe has to perform. It has to feel right on skin. For our heritage range, it has to flush and break down properly to AS/NZS 5328, the certification that came out of the industry losing customer trust around 2019 when many products claiming to be flushable simply were not. Getting strength during use and breakdown after disposal to coexist required extensive testing and iteration. Small changes in fibre or formulation have outsized effects on performance.

I bought a packet of every competitor wipe I could find. Tried them all. Took notes on what worked and what did not. Then started working through formulations until we had something that was genuinely better than what was on the shelf, made entirely in Australia from 100% plant-based fibres.

Caring for your skin shouldn’t cost the earth. That’s why we created Kine.

Kine was born from a simple belief: that daily care products can be both luxurious and kind — to your skin, to your lifestyle, and to the environment we all share.

The new range

Through 2026 we have expanded Kine well beyond the bathroom. Four new SKUs have launched, all manufactured in South Australia, all 100% plant-based, all biodegradable:

•       Hand Cloths, antibacterial and alcohol-free

•       Pet Cloths, for the family member with paws

•       Surface Cloths, killing 99.99% of germs without the chemical smell

•       Makeup Removal Cloths that do not make you feel guilty

The four new SKUs are deliberately not flushable. The original Body and Baby cloths remain the flushable specialists in our range. Across all six SKUs, the same brand principles apply: plant-based fibres, Australian manufacturing, plastic-free wipes, and no compromises on the user experience.

Why local manufacturing matters

Manufacturing locally is harder than not. There is no government or retailer advantage to making personal care products in Australia versus importing them from overseas. The big grocery chains preference cheap, plastic, overseas-made wipes. Australian manufacturers in this category start a few steps behind.

I still would not have started Kine any other way. Making it locally means quality control we own end to end, transparency we can stand behind, lower transport emissions, and direct support for local jobs and suppliers. It also means we can move faster when we want to improve the product.

Kine for you. Kine for yours. Kine for the environment.

Proudly Australian owned and made, we set out to reimagine personal care for modern life. Life gets messy. Whether you're at home with kids, travelling between meetings, or out exploring the world — staying clean and cared for shouldn’t mean harsh ingredients or more plastic in landfill.

Clean skin, cleaner conscience.

Why we do it?

Find the Right Wipe for Every Moment

From baby care and body freshen-ups to hand hygiene, makeup removal, muddy paws, and kitchen clean-ups, there’s a Kine wipe for every part of everyday life. 

Step 1: Use

Step 2: Dispose

Body Cloths and Baby Cloths are certified flushable to AS/NZS 5328. All cloths are biodegradable, simply disposed of in your bin or FOGO green bin.

Step 3: Feel Good

Choose products that work beautifully and fit the way you live — thoughtfully made for your family and the environment.

Where are your cloths made?

Kine body cloths are proudly Australian made and owned. All our cloths are manufactured and assembled locally, helping reduce carbon emissions from transport and ensuring high-quality production standards. Choosing Kine means supporting local Australian jobs while shopping flushable wipe products with the environment in mind.

Kine Australia

Kine for you.
Kine for your skin.
Kine for the environment.