Ash & Stone turned over $200,000 in sales last year, says founder Ashleigh Scopas. Photo / Supplied
Ashleigh Scopas was unemployed and on the benefit when she started her crystal business. Now, just over a year later the business is making $25,000 a month and is expected to double its sales in coming months.
Scopas turned to crystals in 2018 to practice mindfulness through meditation during her struggles with mental health as a recommendation by her therapist.
When Covid-19 hit and the pandemic sent workers home and businesses closed, Scopas, 31, was looking for large crystals for her home when she found a gap in the market.
It wasn't until the former personal assistant for a bank returned home to New Zealand from Sydney at the end of 2020 and struggled to find employment that she took the plunge to start the business.
"I had nothing to lose, I was really struggling to find work, and I had this concept and I knew there was a market for it so I gave it a crack," Scopas tells the Herald.
The Ministry of Social Development helped Scopas get on to a business Start Me Up programme when she was on the Jobseeker benefit to see if her idea was feasible, and she was later able to secure $10,000 in funding to set up Ash & Stone.
She received funding the second time she applied for the Small Business Grant after her first application was declined. As part of the initiative they paid her a Flexi Wage for six months - a wage to support her living expenses while she established the business.
Scopas began selling crystals at community markets each weekend. "I was in Christchurch at the time and through the markets we sold stock I had purchased from the grant and I really hustled.
"Everyone who came to my table, I asked to follow us on social media, and we started to grow rapidly. Our online business started to kick off. In the beginning it was the markets where I was getting most of my profit from, but it was my goal to see online sales take over markets so I could eventually move away from them."
After two months that goal was realised, and in January she moved up to Auckland and invested in a space to dispatch e-commerce orders, and, unknown at the time, a retail store.
Scopas initially had no plans to open a retail store, but the commercial space she had secured in Auckland's Kingsland was next to a cafe, tattoo studio and clothing shop that she thought a physical store could work well in.
It opened in early June, and store sales overtook online sales within weeks.
The business turns over on average $20,000-$25,000 each month and in the last financial year made $200,000 in sales. It hopes to double its sales over the Christmas trading period.
Ash & Stone sells more than 30 variations of crystals. Its biggest sellers are rose quartz and amethysts, and it specialises in large 10kg-plus decorative crystals. It imports most of its stones from Brazil and India.
"When I started this I remember being terrified of spending $300 to get a few crystals to start with, but we have built up the stock over the last year and had help with the grant.
"I didn't have heaps of savings, that [stock] has been bought just on our sales. We're reinvesting everything," she says.
Scopas placed her first two overseas orders of crystals - 200kg from Brazil and 400kg from India in January, and is set to order another 800kg from Brazil shortly.
Crystals are big business on both sides of the Tasman. It is not known how much the crystal market in New Zealand is worth, but Scopas says it is lucrative.
Margins are high and profits are huge.
Australia's leading crystal retailer is said to turn over A$70,000 (NZ$80,000) a month. Scopas is hopeful Ash & Stone can replicate that success this side of the Tasman.
"There is definitely a lot of money to be made. It is a big business," she says.
"It is a belief system. Some people just want crystals for interiors and some people want them for what they feel is a healing property, whereas we angle more from interiors and bringing a mindful piece for your home that creates a peaceful space.
"You can usually go to a crystal shop and they'll tell you what physical benefits a crystal will have but we choose not to talk about that because I feel that would be irresponsible. But it is a massive industry."
Ash & Stone is able to mark its prices up significantly. Scopas has asked the Herald to keep these figures confidential.
"To really see us making a profit, the goal is to get 90 per cent of our stock from overseas because then we can mark it up much higher and that's when we'll start to see good profit margins coming in," says Scopas.
"From November to December, we're hoping to be bringing in at least $40,000-$50,000 a month, and then from next year I'd like to start doubling our budget. I'm manifesting it."
Ash & Stone has already surpassed $100,000 in sales since inception and Scopas is now paying herself a wage. She has a casual employee who helps out on Thursdays.
Scopas also has help from her mum, who is a director, and plans to employ her in two to three years' time.
Eventually, Scopas has aspirations for Ash & Stone to become the country's largest online crystal business and have another physical store, before expanding into Australia.
In recent years crystals have had something of a comeback, back in fashion in part through social media, influencer marketing, and the pandemic.
Scopas says a handful of online crystals shops have popped up since Ash & Stone began last year. She puts growing demand for crystals down to extended lockdowns having forced society to look inwards and re-evaluate what is important.
"People were stuck at home and really thought about life and I think a lot of people started to bring mindfulness to their space and life. From there I think it has been a natural progression.
"Most people that are getting into meditation or yoga and mindfulness practice tap into crystals, and that's why I think sales have taken off. Covid was terrible, but I think that this industry has benefited from people being at home and tapping into their mental wellbeing," says Scopas.
Scopas says she never expected the business to take off to the extent it has.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to have a shop now - I planned to spend two years building it online and see how we go, and we've grown really fast."
She believes part of Ash & Stone's success has been down to it being a "personable brand" as she has been open on social media about how she has used crystals as part of her own mental health journey.
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