A positive story is hard to come by in the pandemic but not for Reever Botha and Vlad Kosovac.
The Brisbane business partners went ahead with launching their new business, a gut health company, right as Australia was going into lockdown in March.
The pair have since been blown awayby sales of their cleanse kits, with PuraU generating $25,000 in sales in the first three weeks and making eight times that amount - or $250,000 - in the subsequent months.
"It was very daunting when we launched," Botha said.
"Coronavirus has been a bit of a shining light in the background because a lot of the e-commerce businesses have boomed during COVID because more people are online.
Botha said he believed the interest had been because "people are looking for more ways than they were before to increase their health and try sustain it".
PuraU's 20-day cleanse is said to relieve indigestion, bloating, gas and promote skin tone and a healthy immune system.
Botha and Kosovac have been working on the company in Botha's parents house, shipping orders themselves and trying to stay on top of their quickly growing brand.
"We were hoping it would grow slower so we had time but it's just taken off," he said.
"We had been pumping money into the business without return but we kept sticking to our guns and staying hopeful.
"We're over the moon with the figures but we want to keep going."
Marcia Adamopoulos Fahim and Abbey Flanagan are also PuraU customers. Photo / Instagram
The pair met at a business seminar in Sydney where they hit it off and decided to work together.
They started work on the company at the beginning of last year and had to go through the process of getting their products approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
They worked with a naturopath to research and develop the products which are already getting good reviews.
Botha said their research showed the gut health market was on the rise in Australia.
"We will be recognised as first movers into the gut health space as 99 per cent of products in the market do not offer a holistic gut health approach nor are they TGA approved or Australian Made, designed by gut health scientists or have branding that even compares," he said.
