The start-up’s hydrogen peroxide-based cleaning and water purification products are stocked in more than 600 retailers domestically, including supermarkets, pharmacy chains and hardware stores.
This will increase to more than 80 Farmlands stores nationwide in early April to expand sales to rural and lifestyle property owners relying on tank water systems.
Another new supply deal will have the water tank treatment, as well as cleaning and plant care products, stocked in about 30 Mitre 10 stores.
Forsana founders Dan Hawke and Martin Sumetzberger want to build on the 100,000 customers they have gained in Australasia over the past five years and surpass the $1million-plus sales revenue expected for this year.
Business growth has averaged 30% to more than 50% year on year after a racing start in the first year.
Mr Hawke said the company was heading in the right direction with its new product range and increased supplier base. The Farmlands deal was a major distribution agreement for them to get the new water tank treatment to rural communities, he said.
‘‘We started development in 2020 in Covid when the world was in disarray and I was about to have my second child and we were looking for something a little bit more natural that didn’t harm the environment, pets or family and we came across this solution that had been around for a couple of hundred years.’’
‘‘The word hydrogen peroxide sometimes scares people until they understand what it means and most people say it is for hair bleach and teeth staining, which is correct but the chemical makeup of this product is something we should have stuck with a long time ago.’’
Forsana worked with an overseas company to add ionised silver into the formula to prevent it from degrading as quickly for a better and longer-lasting disinfectant.
Before a rebranding last year the range was sold under Good Clean Health Co to Australia online and via a few retail outlets.
Mr Hawke said the brand was changed on the advice of mentors who thought a single-word name would be easier for domain purposes, marketing and consumers to remember.
‘‘So sana in Italian means healthy and we have gone for healthy lifestyles, healthy water and healthy people and plants and our whole business mantra is health living.’’
For Forsana a team of about four staff manufacture, label, pack and distribute the cleaner range in Christchurch after they stepped back from overseas importing to solve shipping, production and quality issues.
Mr Hawke said they had managed to bootstrap the business growth on earnings so far.
‘‘We have considered raising money several times, but we have managed to get through periods we needed to and we are quite impressed with our efforts.’’
While the product is approved as a hospital-grade disinfectant in New Zealand, entry in this category in Australia requires additional approvals and this could be another opportunity.
‘‘We are launching back into Australia with Forsana at the end of next month so that will be another big challenge on its own and from there it will be building our retailer network in Australia as well so we can branch out to more stores. Pipeline goals are we would love to go to Asian and UK markets followed by the US eventually.’’
