Former National Party politician Paula Bennett is a brand ambassador for SRW Laboratories. Photo / Supplied
Former National Party politician Paula Bennett is a brand ambassador for SRW Laboratories. Photo / Supplied
Business owner Greg Macpherson, founder and chief executive of SRW Laboratories, describes how Covid-19 has been a double-edged sword for his business.
What does your business do?
SRW Laboratories is a health supplement company and we develop nutraceuticals and formulations that aim to help people age better. It started witha cell system designed to target the nine hallmarks of ageing - the nine areas that decline with age, identified by researchers. Our products help to defer the decline of DNA that happens with age.
What was the motivation for starting it?
I founded the business two years ago. I'm a pharmacist by trade and I've spent the last 10 years in biotech. I left my previous role and had a look at what was happening in the healthy ageing space and wrote a book called the Nine Hallmarks of Ageing, and in the process of doing that I figured out that no one was really creating products for people that addressed those hallmarks and so it was the genesis of SRW Laboratories.
We have a team of 10 all up. We are a small team and growing, but our team has worked so hard and there has been a huge amount of hours to get where we've got through to.
What has the business' recent performance looked like?
We're tracking incredibly. $56 million in GMV (gross merchandise value) all retail price, sales, and we're expecting $150 million this year, which is phenomenal. I think it is just the right product at the right time - people are becoming more and more aware that you can influence ageing.
Who's buying your product and what markets are they available in?
We're in the United States, we have a channel that we have established where we sell to doctors, who make them available in their practices. Used by healthy ageing doctors; it's a huge trend in the States, has been for sometime. We're on Amazon.com and we've sold into 12 countries around the world, with China our main market. Our products are sold via crossborder commerce.
How was the business funded?
We've got business partners based in Sydney. I'd prefer not to say how much we've put in.
Where do you see the business in three to five year's time?
In three to five years I expect we will continue to grow significantly in the China market and we will have quite a sizeable business in America and that's going to be the most significant focus. I know we will pick up business in other areas - we're talking to a potential partner in South America, the same in Europe and I'm advancing conversations with a doctor group in Japan - all things point to reasonably good growth in the next three to five years. We've got a clear pipeline of products that we'll continue to develop over the next three years and I'm sure that there will be more that come along as we build the business.
Covid has been a nightmare and a blessing in both equal parts. The beautiful thing about the pandemic is it has certainly made people more aware of their health and being more healthier to deal with these sorts of things, and that side has been really helpful, but on the other side I haven't been able to visit the markets that we are establishing in so I think that has actually held us back. If I had been able to spend a bit of time in America in the last couple of years I know that we would be much further ahead than we are. I've spent the last eight years before that going backwards and forwards to the States and establishing a fantastic network of doctors, researchers and it has been a huge gap for us.
Greg Macpherson, founder and chief executive of SRW Laboratories. Photo / Supplied
We've done a lot by Zoom but you can't underestimate the value of fronting up and being at their place to effect change and be an influence. I'll be up in the States for a month in June or July, just working out exactly what the dates are, and that'll be huge for us and will enable us to make some huge ground.
What's your focus at present?
New product development is taking up most of our time, and our research development. We're about to launch an exciting product with some exciting technology for immune support; this is biotechnology that has come out of Canada which we've licensed so that is going to be made available to New Zealanders shortly.
We're starting to do clinical trials on the products that we've got as well as the huge amount of work that goes behind research development of the next lot of products that we've got coming. That's the fun job I've got as chief.
What advice do you give to others who want to start their own business?
Talk to your customers and find out what resonates with them. Go away and do what you think you've heard and go back to check to see if you got it right. In that process you de-risk everything. The main point is to understand exactly what your consumer wants.
