Laura Griffin, director of Solar Buddies, explains why the business should win the Startup of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
Solar Buddies are refillable, roll-on, mess free sunscreen applicators. They were invented by myself and Kelli Aspland, Cwmbran mothers concerned about how their children were protecting themselves from the sun whilst at school. Our children attend the same school, which had a no touch policy, meaning that teachers aren’t allowed to help children apply sunscreen.
We worked with the product design students at Cardiff Metropolitan University to develop the product’s ergonomic design, and found a Chinese manufacturer when we discovered that producing the Buddies in the UK wouldn’t be financially viable.
Solar Buddies has been mostly self-funded, but investment and mentoring from Hayley Parsons OBE, the founder and former CEO of Gocompare.com, has been essential to the development of the business.
We didn’t write a business plan, instead choosing to allow the business develop organically. JoJo Maman Bebe is the first major retailer to stock the Buddies and they hit the stores’ shelves in early February 2016.
In July 2015 a local newspaper article about the business sparked national press coverage. This lead to a surge in demand and we sold £8500 in just three days. We have recently secured an Australian distributor.
We believe the secret to our success is that they are friends first and foremost. We had an idea, believed in it and went for it. We are passionate about the Buddies and about teaching children about how to stay safe in the sun.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
