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A trio of Timaru high school students are hoping to do away with the stigma around men’s skin care with their new business.
As part of the Young Enterprise Scheme (Yes) Roncalli College students Fraser Gough, Liam Harding and Alex Sugrue have created MenSpace and are selling a men’s acne facial treatment product.
Chief executive Fraser said the idea for their product came from the group’s own experiences.
“We basically got the idea both from ourselves as being young men going through puberty, acne and that sort of stuff and having lots of different products out there that were quite confusing to use.
“So we wanted to make a product that was simple, easy to understand and easy to use.”
It was packaged like a lip balm, he said.
“You push it up and then you just wipe it on your face.
“We got the packaging from China and we’ve got a professional company in Auckland to make the product for us.
“They made us a good product and we’ve all been using it.”
Financial advisor Liam said they were selling their product for $25 and were taking pre-orders with the first batch expected to arrive in about a fortnight.
“We had to do some fundraising to be able to ship the first package
“Our first order is 300 units so our goal is sell all of that and then look to order and sell another 300.
“Hopefully we will be able to get it into stores, somewhere like The Warehouse and do some wholesaling.”
Marketing director Alex said it had been a little difficult trying to get other students on board with the product.
“They might think it’s a bit feminine maybe but that’s why we set out to do what we’re doing.
“We thought that that’s how some people may think but we still want to be able to help them out.”
Fraser said the trio had been enjoying being a part of Yes.
“We’ve been doing well, we’ve got two 100% marks and we got second [place] in the pitch.
“It’s been a fun journey, we’re coming up to the business end of it now with our regional competition finals and if we do well we can get to go to Wellington for the nationals.
“For that to happen we basically need to get some more sales, strike up some deals and get some good money flow.
“Other than that I think it’s just documenting our whole journey.”
He was looking forward to having the physical product.
“It’s definitely harder to sell an idea rather than an actual product.
“The pre-sales that we’ve got have mostly been from people close to us that we know, so once we actually can show off what the product is and what it does, then we can start to build confidence in our brand.”
Anyone wishing to learn more, follow their progress or purchase the product can do so by visiting MenSpace on Facebook or Instagram.