Maternity gives birth to growth business

By ELLEN READ

A present from her best friend shortly after the birth of Darnelle Barber's son, Fletcher, three years ago turned into an irresistible business opportunity.

The present was a zoo pillow - an animal-shaped pillow which ensures the mother and baby are positioned correctly for breastfeeding.

"She had had four children and she said to me that the worst thing about breastfeeding is your neck and your back," said Barber. "But this new pillow was out and really helped it be more comfortable."

Unfortunately it was not available in stores because the designer, physiotherapist Robyn Burns, was making them just for friends.

"It moved me to the point where I had to ring Robyn," said Barber. "I'd never met her but there was a little tag on the bottom of the pillow so I rang her and told her how brilliant the pillow was."

She then took the pillow to her mothers' group and seven of the 10 women there ordered one.

So she rang Burns and the two met for coffee.

"We started chatting and talking about the product. Robyn's fulltime job [with Fisher & Paykel] was getting more and more busy and her husband is a doctor so he's busy too. So when Fletcher was about three months old, she offered me the business," Barber said.

With her husband Phil, Barber bought the existing stock and rights to continue manufacturing zoo pillows.

The Barbers' company, Upstart Creations, is now conquering the Australian market, having started as a part-time venture from their Howick home.

Production has grown from a few hundred pillows a year to 6000 units in the past seven months, with much higher sales numbers expected when other outlets come on board.

Turnover for the year to June 30 should reach A$300,000.

Barber said a big part of their success was thanks to businesswoman Carol Comer, whose company, High Impact, she contacted after reading about it in a newspaper.

"She was basically our mentor. She pulled me up short and said I had all the great ideas but didn't have a plan. She told me to go away, have a think and come back with a business plan. So I did," Barber said.

One of the things Comer made her think about was the manufacturing side. Barber realised that it made more sense to manufacture in China - despite freight costs - because in New Zealand she had to go to half a dozen places to get the pillows made and ended up doing packaging herself.

"It's so sad to say that but there's no one place that does everything," Barber said.

Now the pillows are made in China and freighted to depots in Auckland and Brisbane.

"There was some early success in having the product stocked in the Baby Factory outlets nationally - where owners Warren and David Lowe were very supportive - and supplying some maternity wards, but then it became so popular it justified exploring the possible opportunities of supplying the much larger Australian market as well."

The Barbers started marketing and direct selling the product in Australia in July 2002 and were pursued by one of Australia's larger distribution companies, Baby Love Products, who signed a distributorship contract in July 2003 for the national Australian distribution rights.

"Since then, via the distributors, supply agreements have been reached and commenced with major Australian companies Target, Toys R Us and Big W, in addition to Australia's largest national baby store chain, BabyCo, along with many other smaller chains and independents," Barber said.

Negotiations to supply around 200 K Mart stores in both Australia and New Zealand are in progress at the moment.

"I think it is a tremendous example of what can be achieved with determination and a lot of effort," Phil Barber said.

Until the couple started to market the product in Australia, he was a firefighter with the NZ Fire Service, but as the business took off he opted to join his wife's venture and now works fulltime for the company.

"It has been a very steep learning curve with some risk of a financial downfall. However, we took the chance and pursued our belief that it would work out," Phil Barber said.

Darnelle - an Australian whose husband, son and father are all New Zealanders - said the New Zealand operation was ticking along on its own now, so the family would basing themselves in Brisbane as the Australian market developed.

Zoo pillow