Waikato Business News November/December 2020

12 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2020
WAIKATO WESTPAC BUSINESS AWARDS
Customer
comes first
By RICHARD WALKER
Hamilton mum Hannah Porter decided
one Monday in May 2018 she could sell
cloth nappies.
Four days later she went
to a Chamber of Commerce
event, said she
was starting up a company
and asked a question.
Reality struck. “I was
like, well I guess I’m doing it
now.”
Five weeks from that Monday
she went live. She started
with a shipment of 300, which
was the minimum order she
could make.
“Our very first month we
did $200 in sales, and I was
stoked.”
Two and a half years later
her shipments from a factory
in China are for between 6000
and 10,000 every couple of
months, she has thousands
of customers throughout
New Zealand and overseas,
is licensing prints from New
Zealand and international
designers and the company is
still growing.
The spare bedroom HQ
has become a warehouse in
Frankton and the Bear & Moo
range has expanded to books,
menstrual products, plates and
cups made from recycled milk
bottles, and more.
The timing was good for
Bear & Moo, so called for the
Porters’ nicknames for their
young sons. A generation concerned
about its environmental
footprint was receptive to
reusable cloth nappies and
could be willing to give them
a go at a price that made them
accessible.
Porter got her start after
seeing a gap in the market
between “super affordable”
from the Baby Factory to $35
to $40 per nappy for other
brands. At that price, some
were deterred from trying
reusables, she says. There was
potential for a middle ground,
and she priced hers at $17.95.
“At $18 each, people go,
‘I'll buy three. I'll give it a go,
see if I like it.’ And then they
realise it's easy. And it's easier
to convert people because of
the price point.”
When it comes to a comparison
of disposable to reusable
nappies, the numbers are
compelling.
Porter says it costs about
$4000 to use disposable nappies
from newborn to toilet
training, whereas using cloth
will cost around $500 to $600
depending on the brand.
And on the environmental
front, she says New Zealand
sends a million disposable
nappies a week to landfill.
Porter has seen competition
build in the mid-range
since she started. “We've
learned very quickly that it's
not actually so much about
the product, it's about the
people. So it's about customer
service.”
We’ve learned very
quickly that it’s not
actually so much
about the product, it’s
about the people. So
it’s about customer
service.
That sees Porter and staff
member Shannon responding
quickly to questions on their
social media platforms, and
replacing returns promptly.
“If something goes wrong,
I don't look at where they
bought it or question anything,
we just send a replacement
straightaway,” Porter
says. “We're always available.
So I show up on social media
a lot. I do a lot of Instagram
stories. So my customers have
gotten to know me.
“And we try to get back to
email on the same day. We've
got a chat system on the
Hannah Porter at the Frankton warehouse. Photo: Shoot & Swoon
website that comes through
to my phone. So when people
are asking questions, a lot of
the replies are either from me
or from Shannon, where we
know our stuff. It's not just
selling a product and then
leaving them to it.
“They'll come back and
say, ‘Okay, I tried this, and
it's not working’, or ‘we're
having leaks here’, or ‘why is
this happening?’ And we give
them that full customer service.
Because you can walk
into a big box retailer, and
walk away with a product and
not know how to use it.”
Porter says she chooses
products based on helping
the parenting journey, and not
being overwhelming. That
sees her limiting the range
within each category.
“It's not necessarily about
having the cheapest option,
but it's about making sure
that the price matches the
quality so if somebody's buying
something they're getting
good quality.”
In a year of disruption,
Covid-19 actually proved
beneficial to Bear & Moo,
which makes 95 percent of its
sales online.
With nappies “flying off
the shelves” at supermarkets
and reluctance to shop in person,
Porter says some turned
to online.
Bear & Moo were classed
as an essential business, but
Porter says they were careful
to deliver only to customers
in genuine need during level
four, while others had to
wait till level three. That saw
them with hundreds of orders
ready to go the day level three
kicked in.
“So April was the best
month we'd ever had,” Porter
says. “We were really lucky,
we had a launch planned for
the beginning of April, so all
of our stock had just arrived.
“Covid was really beneficial
for our business, which is
really hard because I know so
many people struggled.”
In November Porter’s company,
Bear & Moo, won the
Micro Business and People’s
Choice awards at the Westpac
Waikato Business Awards,
just two months after winning
the Oh Baby award for
best cloth nappy, voted on by
the public. Porter is delighted
with the dual recognition,
with one customer-driven and
the other an endorsement of
the business approach.
Entering the business
awards was good because it
meant she stepped back and
looked at what the company
had done and why. “It forced
me to stop and be proud of
how far we've come and look
at some of the strategy behind
it.”
She says winning People’s
Choice as well on the
night was also about customer
validation. “I think both are
really important. If you've
Hannah Porter and husband Richard with the
People’s Choice award. Photo: Barker Photography
got a great business model,
but your reputation is not
good because your customers
aren't happy, then you're
not going to succeed. And
you can have great customer
service and be running a
business into the ground with
no profits because you don't
have the business nous.
“So to get both just married
together gave the idea
that actually we're doing
something right.”
Congratulations
Civtec Ltd.
Supreme Winner of the Westpac Waikato Business Awards.
Westpac Waikato
Business Awards
Westpac New Zealand Limited.