Companies on the Move

Confidence Club helps relieve special needs

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

MOST PEOPLE don’t talk about problems they have with incontinence. They’ll talk about other mental or sexual health issues, but incontinence is just never mentioned.

Which makes Confidence Club such a fascinating service. It’s online and it’s subscriber based. About 40% of Confidence Club’s business comes from subscribers and they make repeat orders.

Confidence Club also works with a lot of government programs like the NDIS and home care packages that don’t support subscriptions.

Extraordinarily, the business revenue has grown 900% since it was set up in 2020.

That’s just in Australia. It doesn’t include the company’s expansion into the United Kingdom (UK).

The incontinence products are not only for adults but also for kids aged between 4 and 15.

One million-plus products sold per year

“We have 60,000 customers who purchase from us in Australia,” Confidence Club co-founder Gavin Bessarabie told Talking Business. “We probably sell about a million pads at the moment. 

“The statistics show there’s over 5 million people in Australia who use incontinence products.”

He said it’s a condition that not only affects older people.

“It very much affects people of all ages and there are lot of different conditions that give rise to using incontinence products, including childbirth, menopause, a myriad of different co-morbidities.”

The interesting part about this is that these products often cannot be found in shops.

Personal service is the key

Mr Bessarabie said most people looking for incontinence products did not get the same level of help in a store, a supermarket or a pharmacy.

“The range is generally quite limited and the product quality is quite varying,” he said.

“It’s very hard to choose one from the other, there’s no standard scale.

“You can find a product but most of our customers tell us that nobody helps them choose a product. You can imagine if you walk into a pharmacy or a supermarket, nobody is going to help you choose the right product for your needs.

“It’s awkward. Certainly you know you’re not going to get help. If you ask, they’ll say ‘Try Aisle 5’. That’s about as much help as you’ll get.

“It’s a difficult product to buy a retail store,” Mr Bessarabie said. “Also, it’s very bulk. So if you’re not driving, and you have to catch a train or a bus, it’s a lot to lug home.

“A lot of our customers tell us they have mobility problems as well as incontinence problems. It’s challenging to buy in retail.”

Fulfilling international need

Confidence Club has now expanded into the UK. It’s an interesting model because the company it has no staff in the UK.

It has a warehouse partner but most of the product comes from Europe, so it’s easier to get there than it is in Australia.

Confidence Club is also planning to expand into France and other parts of Europe.

“If you look at the statistics, they have similar levels of obesity, levels of Alzheimers, levels of diabetes, all these conditions which play into incontinence and also an ageing population as well,” he said.

Mr Bessarabie said the business was built around customer service with 14 of the 20 staff members working in customer service.

“Our customer service people are friends with their customers,” he said.

www.confidenceclub.com.au

www.leongettler.com 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-46-interview-with-gavin-basserabie-from-con

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Edge Impact joins RSK Australia to accelerate its 2030 sustainability mission

EDGE IMPACT, Australia’s full-service environment and sustainability consultancy that supports many blue-chip and government clients, has joined the international RSK Group.

The official statement from Edge said the deal would allow the company, and RSK, to accelerate its sustainability management impact “during this critical decade”.

The core of Edge Impact’s services are what it calls “fundamental sustainability services across environmental, social and governance (ESG), leadership and transformation, decarbonisation, life cycle and supply chain assessments, mandatory disclosure and reporting, climate resilience and the circular economy”.

On the Edge Impact team are scientists, strategists, economists, engineers and creatives. The company’s work is currently delivered from offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand and Santiago in Chile. 

Edge Impact’s clients span all levels of Australian government, contributing to regulation and legislation, as well as multinational industry leaders across sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing, retail, travel and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).

What RSK brings to the table

RSK is a global leader in the delivery of sustainable solutions. Its 2030 global strategy will see the business nearly quadruple its turnover from £1.2 billion at the end of FY23 to more than £5 billion in 2030.

The strategy will see RSK doubling its family of environmental and engineering businesses from 200 to 400 and increasing its headcount from 15,000 employees in 40 countries today to 40,000 people over the next six years. 

Australia is a key growth market for RSK. Within six years, RSK Australia is expected to increase its turnover from $240 million to $1.4 billion, with its Australian workforce growing from 450 to 5000.

RSK chief executive officer Alan Ryder said the decision to welcome Edge Impact into the group represented clear evidence of RSK acting on its intention to significantly expand its Australian operations.

“RSK will continue to invest in Australian businesses that are playing their part in delivering sustainable solutions,” Mr Ryder said.

“Edge Impact specifically is an excellent fit for RSK with its impressive track record of supporting blue-chip companies to develop and implement ESG strategies. We see countless opportunities for revenue synergies across the RSK Group and, in particular, with our businesses in Australia and the wider Asia Pacific region.”  

Edge more impactful

RSK Australia managing director Mark Haydock said, “With RSK’s global reputation for leading on sustainability, RSK Australia’s investment in Edge Impact makes perfect sense.

“RSK has a range of global businesses delivering for clients across the sustainability, ecology and biodiversity, waste and resources management sectors. We understand how crucial this work is to support businesses and governments and to drive the economies that support them.

“At RSK Australia, everything we do stems from a clearly defined purpose – to help our clients progress towards a resilient, future-ready Australia. Embedding sustainability within the heart of every business is essential and we are very clear about how we can support all our clients with bespoke science-backed guidance designed to meet their specific, strategic needs.

“We are confident that investing in Edge Impact will add great value to this commitment,” Mr Haydock said. 

Edge Impact chief executive officer Alison Rowe said joining RSK Australia offered the business the unique opportunity to achieve its full growth potential while remaining true to its core values.

“Within RSK Australia, we can realise the innovative growth we strive for while enjoying the support of a group that shares our values,” Ms Rowe said. “Achieving lasting sustainability impact is so important to the business that we have all worked so hard to create.”

The company’s founders, Jonas Bengtsson and Tom Davies said, “Since founding Edge in 2008, we’ve pursued a singular mission to catalyse sustainable economies for future generations. While we’ve steadily expanded our services and impact, we recognise that the climate crisis demands unprecedented scale and speed.

“This critical decade requires more than organic growth – it calls for bold collaboration and exponential impact. We believe that this is something we can achieve by joining forces with RSK’s ecosystem.”

About RSK Australia

RSK Australia’s multidisciplinary companies are engaged in a range of large environmental and infrastructure projects in Australia and New Zealand. The businesses are:

ADENCO – specialising in dewatering, water management and civil engineering.

Binnies Australia – an established name in the water sector, providing innovative solutions to complex engineering and environmental challenges.

EDP Australia – delivering health and safety, asbestos, property compliance, environment, sustainability and security services.

Extent Heritage – national heritage management and archaeological business.

Pensar – infrastructure solutions provider servicing a range of industry sectors.

Projence – an integrated project management and commercial services business.

SJA – advisory services, planning and programming, project management and quantity surveying for the construction industry

Western Project Services – project management services business specialising in the transport sector, primarily roads.

www.edgeimpact.global

www.rskgroup.com

 

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Secrets of property understood by buyers’ agents

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

A BUYERS’ AGENT knows the property market better than most.

Sydney-based buyers' agent, Michelle May, principal from Michelle May Buyers Agents, said buyers’ agents had the advantage of understanding people, including what was driving vendors and agents. Property buyers have no idea about this sort of stuff.

She said the property market is not one market.  It’s many micro-markets.

Unless you understand what’s going on in particular suburbs and the types of property you are after, she said, you could be wasting a lot of time. That’s where a buyers’ agent comes in.

Growing up in North Africa due to her parent’s job, Michelle travelled the world from an early age. Moving to the UK at the age of 20 she held down a ‘normal’ job for 12 years, while also renovating and ‘flipping’ properties, starting with her first project at the age of 22. That’s when she discovered she had a passion for the property market. 

Landing in Australia in 2007 gave her the opportunity to transform her property passion into the well-respected business it is today. She educates her clients into making better property purchasing decisions, through her business.

She claims to have an 80 percent success rate at auctions.

“Going into auctions, people assume the people with the most money will get the job done and there is a certain truth to that,” Ms May told Talking Business.

“But I do think going in with an action plan will actually serve you very well and hiring someone like me who is not emotionally involved and who does this every weekend almost multiple times year in year out, I can certainly teach my clients a thing or two.”

Ms May said the property market was now 24/7 – “I don’t really have a life” – and more sales agents are putting properties on the market on Sundays because buyers are free, as there is no work or sport going on.

She said these days people had “an emotional connection with property” particularly owner-occupiers who happen to be most of her clientele.

“We do joke in the office that we are part buyers’ agents, part-psychologists/marriage counsellors,” Ms May said.

“There is a reason why people are reaching out to buyers’ agents like us because they realise it’s not a simple transaction. It’s not like walking into a Volkswagen dealership and saying okay, I’m going to have that one.

“Funnily enough, people do more research into what kind of car they’re going to buy than what kind of property they’re going to buy.

“So we can break it down and also tell them some hard truths. We cut through the wishful thinking, the bad advice they’ve received from the hairdresser’s brother’s cousin’s sister, and also all the headlines in the media as well.”

Ms May said buyers’ agents offer different types of services.

“We could be just the hired gun for the day,” she said. “You give me your budget, I show up at the properties, I use my strategies and bid on your behalf.

“It’s all the way through to a fully comprehensive service where we sit down with you, and if there’s a partner involved, we sit down and break down your needs and wants list.

“And we project manage it from there. We take you by the hand, we search off market properties, with what’s on the market, we inspect, we evaluate, we do a lot of due diligence.

“We co-ordinate all the different parties involved. We talk to your broker, we talk to your solicitor, we put you in touch with the right people as well.” 

www.michellemay.com.au

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-40-interview-with-michelle-may-from-michell

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Health span is as important as life span – enter FutureLab

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

SINCE Covid-19, the big focus everywhere has been on human ‘health span’ as well as life span.

To respond to questions being raised about potential health and life spans, Melrose Heath has set up FutureLab, creating Australia’s first over-the-counter range of longevity supplements.

Melrose Health CEO Nathan Cheong said the lab had essentially developed supplements addressing four health problems as we age: cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease and metabolic health issues. 

The supplements have been launched with one of Melrose’s pharmacy partners, Chemist Warehouse, and also across other pharmacies and health food outlets, as well as online. People can buy these product anywhere through the Melrose Health’s online shop.

“I saw an opportunity to elevate a product range that hasn’t really been focused on in the Australian market,” Mr Cheong told Talking Business.

“As it happens, longevity is hot right now. Everyone is talking about health span versus life span, which ultimately means how you can function and do the things you do today in the later years of your life, so that you’re not living with disease, you’re not living with debilitation that stops you from doing the things you like to do,” he said.

“What we did was, we formulated a product range around those four drivers of disease and we’re probably Australia’s first brand to do that.

“The products that we launched are around cellular longevity which is the cornerstone of how we age, our DNA replication.”

The products include NAD Plus, or DNA Repair, to focus heart health and vascular health, as well as products pertaining to inflammation – which is a big factor in chronic disease – and a product around cellular health which is about the clearing of dead cells out of our systems.

Supplementing de-stress

There are also products addressing stress, people’s sleep and muscle health because “we know as we age our muscles catabolise (break down instead of grow).”

There are also products that address cognition and memory. There is another product around immunity.

The company also has another 10-15 products it intends to launch over the next 12 months.

“Over the course of the last 12 to 18 months, we’ve been scouring the globe for the best ingredients, the most bio-available ingredients to bring them together in a form that really doesn’t have any competition in the Australian market at this point in time,” Mr Cheong said.

It’s all part of the bigger picture of people taking steps to stay healthy as they age. The supplements are just that – they are not magic pills.

Holistic approach: more to it than pills

“As a qualified practitioner, I think the most important things about health span and life span is exercise, a combination of strength training and cardiovascular training, you need to be doing that at least five times a week,” Mr Cheong said.

“The next part is around diet and ensuring you have a diet that is predominantly whole foods and you take processed foods out of your diet. You take seed oils out of your diet and you take sugar out of your diet. And you have a high-quality protein source so that you can retain your muscle mass.

“And then there’s sleep, and sleep is important because it impacts so many areas of your life.”

The other pillar is having strong connections with family, friends and neighbours.

“If you’re doing those things, you’re doing extremely well,” Mr Cheong said.

“The supplements that we bring to the market are the icing on the cake. They’re the extra levers you can pull to optimise your heath span.”

www.melrosefuturelab.com 

www.leongettler.com

    

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-36-nathan-cheong-from-melrose-health-group

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Aussie companies are M&A targets – and with good reason

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business>>

DESPITE a post-Covid slowdown in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity, partly in response to global economic conditions and political uncertainty, M&A deals are now on the rise in Australia.

Nexia Australia’s corporate advisory partner, Brent Goldman said Australia had a tendency to “punch above its weight” in global markets.        

“If you look at overseas companies coming here, the US always buys in Australia,” Mr Goldman told Talking Business.

“They’ve been a consistent purchaser of companies and a lot of times that’s in the software type services type industries. So there’s definitely an ongoing (interest in) businesses with skill sets, recognising the talent we do have in Australia,” he said. 

This ‘buy Australian’ activity also adds to the growth of the overseas businesses.

Why Australia is an M&A destination

But this, he said, was part of Australia’s strength and why it remains so attractive to offshore companies and private equity.

“We have limited resources in Australia so we’re always trying to find solutions to problems,” Mr Goldman said.

“And so we end up finding smaller companies with skill sets to solve problems that larger companies cannot do.

“That’s just the nature of our culture and also our education.”

Mr Goldman said some of the major M&As were going on in the construction and engineering space.

There was a reason for that.

“You can see that as being defensive,” he said. “That’s an industry that’s been struggling.”

The next biggest sector in M&As in Australia was in software services and, rather than the hot-button of the moment – artificial intelligence (AI) – it was actually more related to cyber security companies, Mr Goldman said.

The third biggest sector for Australian M&As was in the consumer discretionary area, notably around pubs.

US and UK companies know M&A value here

The consistent buyers of Australian businesses are US and UK companies.

Of these, 32 percent were US buyers and 17 percent were UK buyers. In other words, nearly half the M&As in Australia were from the US and UK.

Mr Goldman said many of the acquisitions were in software services or in media and entertainment.

“You can see the countries that thrive with the potential synergies there,” he said.

While many of the buyers were corporate, they were also often backed by private equity.

Looking ahead, he said the next few years would be a continuation of the current trend.

He said the transactions would take longer to finalise “as everyone tries to deal with the uncertainty in the background”.

However, entrepreneurs will want to “start moving forward again”.

“Once we get through these next six-to-12 months, and hopefully in the new year, we’ll see the activity pick up as we put a lot of the uncertainty behind us,” Mr Goldman said.

“Whether you like what will happen or not, at least you’ll know. You’ll be able to make decisions with some certainty or stronger views and then.”

Mr Goldman said while there were many different views about what lies ahead economically, politically and with business, that diversity of views will create transactions.

“It’s about the economy and people in jobs and creating that level of activity so that people will feel confident to start transacting again and building businesses and that create opportunities for all,” Mr Goldman said.

www.nexia.com.au

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-29-interview-with-brent-goldman-from-nexia-

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Feeling right at home with remote work?

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

REMOTE work is now becoming the norm.

According to Chris McNamara, the chief revenue officer for the company named Remote, companies that embrace remote work have more diverse workforces.

Alternatively, companies that fail to embrace some form of remote work will have trouble recruiting talent. 

He believes remote work has become the new norm. 

“I think over the last couple of years we’ve experienced the shift to remote work and I think what started as a reaction to the pandemic has become almost an awakening to the benefits of working from home,” Mr McNamara told Talking Business.

“I think that’s not only true from the employee side but also on the employer’s side.”

Mr McNamara said there was a lot of research now showing that not only is employee satisfaction higher with remote work, but employees working remotely are actually more productive.

One Stanford University study found that employees working remotely demonstrated higher job satisfaction, 35 percent lower attrition and 11 percent higher productivity than their peers working for the same company, but doing it in the office.

Aware of ‘remote’ benefits

Mr McNamara said more people around the world were becoming more aware of these benefits and it was now quite possible for companies to put in the right infrastructure for remote work – which especially suited knowledge workers, who could work in any setting.

“Perhaps even more important than having the right tools is having the right culture,” Mr McNamara said.

“You need the right management to be in place because it’s not the same, from my experience, that working remotely is the same as working in an office.

“If a company and a management team expect those things to be exactly the same, I just don’t think that’s going to work out,” he said.

“You need to be thoughtful about: how are you going to co-ordinate activity when people are working remotely? How are you going to share knowledge when people are in different locations and not in the office? How do you build culture when it’s not about pizza and beers on Friday?

“It needs to be something way more intentional when people are located in different places around the country, potentially even different places around the world.”

Remote itself is ‘fully distributed’

Mr McNamara said his company, Remote, had 1000 employees and it operated in 70 different countries. The company does not have a head office. It is a fully distributed team.

He said more and more employers were adopting distributed work models because they were finding it harder now to source the talent.

Mr McNamara said this now required a different approach to management and perhaps a greater level of trust than what some managers would be accustomed to.

“We work with customers who are opening up jobs outside their home country,” he said.

“So an Australian company decides to open up jobs in the Asia-Pacific region. We’re finding that for certain types roles, those companies are able to hire 50 percent more quickly because they are no longer competing for people in exactly the same locations.”

Mr McNamara said remote work “was here to stay” because employee interest in flexibility was “going nowhere but up”.

“Companies that preclude flexibility for their employees will find themselves on the wrong side of the decision when employees are choosing where they’re going to work.”  

www.remote.com

www.leongettler.com

 

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-20-interview-with-chris-mcnamara-from-remot

 

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The Dom curates and informs customers about brands – and why it chooses them

By Leon Gettler, Talking Business >>

SHOPPERS looking for discounts on their clothing are sick of dealing with the cluttered look.

Justin Seskin, the CEO and co-founder of online store The Dom, said the aim of the company is to ‘get rid of the cluttered look’.

Instead, it’s offering more than 250 brands for an aspirational market that is looking for high-end discounts on 250-plus clothing brands including Adidas and Lee Matthews.

“Being in fashion and retail for a long time, I just saw an opportunity for more elevated and more premium outlets, particularly one online and one that really understands the needs of the brands, the sellers, and the product we are selling, and also the customer,” Mr Sekin told Talking Business.

“The customer is always looking for a discount and a big part of sales aren’t made at a discounted rate and there are discounted propositions online, whether it’s Catch or eBay, or some of the bricks and mortar offerings, but our opinion is a lot of them are cluttered down markets.

“That’s not the experience that customer or the brand wants. That’s why we came into The Dom and there certainly is a movement globally for more elevated discount propositions. There is a big movement to the more aspirational premium outlet proposition which we believe The Dom is fulfilling in Australia,” he said.

“Our goal is to be that fashion and lifestyle destination.”

Cluttered outlets seem ‘cheap’ and downmarket

The problem with having an outlet that is too cluttered, he said, was that it gave the perception that it was selling cheap downmarket products. 

“In many instances it’s not, it’s just the environment you find them in,” Mr Seskin said.

“When you go into an outlet and you find tens of products stacked on a rack or as many as you can fit on a shelf, that’s what creates that perception of that product being old or that product being not aspirational – but that’s absolutely what we are trying to change.

“We are trying to educate the customer that the outlet is a place where you can find good fashion products.”

‘Editorial’ approach to presentation

Mr Seskin said The Dom was handpicking the brands it wanted to present for customers. The brands are not presented as being on sale in a final clearance.

There is a lot of content on site and communication with customers, whether it’s by email or social media, informing them what brands they should be buying.

“The editorial component is key,” Mr Seskin said. “So it’s not throwing all the products we can find at the customer. We merchandise. How can we provide the customer with the product that’s relevant to them, whether that’s through typical search and merch or and editorial lens that gives the customer some guidance to what they should be buying,” he said.

All the brands on The Dom are placed in precincts, similar to what you find in any shopping centre.

“We are creating that concept online which does help us talk to the customer in a language familiar to them,” Mr Seskin said.

“So without knowing who the customer is, if they find their way to the designer precinct, we roughly know what language we should be talking to them.”

www.thedom.com

www.leongettler.com

     

Hear the complete interview and catch up with other topical business news on Leon Gettler’s Talking Business podcast, released every Friday at www.acast.com/talkingbusiness

https://shows.acast.com/talkingbusiness/episodes/talking-business-12-interview-with-justin-seskin-from-the-do

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