from The Courier, Jan 2024
Made in Dundee but exported globally, a city entrepreneur is now cleaning up.
A Dundee business which creates cleaning products has gone from filling bottles by hand to being stocked in Walmart within five years.
Ecoanolytes, which manufactures the Dew range, topped £1 million sales for the first time last year.
But founder and majority shareholder Erik Smyth is targeting a £5m turnover this year as it enters more stores around the world.
Since starting the company in 2018, all 1.5m litres of Dew products have been manufactured in Dundee.
It can be found in Spar, Halfords and Pets at Home in the UK and also shops in Italy, Spain, Greece and the Middle East.
What’s The Secret Of Dew’s Success?
The Dew range is made using electrolysed water, meaning it doesn’t have toxic chemicals used by rival products.
Mr Smyth said positively charged water molecules work as a disinfectant while negatively charged molecules are good for cleaning.
It means Dew is safer for families and also has better environmental credentials.
Initially the founder thought his main customers would be businesses, but that quickly changed.
“I looked at using it to remove listeria from salmon but the commercialisation process was taking far too long,” he said.
“I built a website and it just started selling. My focus went from industrial applications to creating a consumer facing brand.
“Then the pandemic kicked in and everything went crazy.
“We first started off targeting the refill shops and that was very successful.
“Word of mouth started to spread about how good the product was.”
From Dundee To The World
The Dew range has expanded to cover home care, pet care, child care and personal care.
The company has achieved international growth by partnering with distributors who specialise in these sectors in different countries.
It has been particularly popular in the Middle East due to not containing alcohol.
“Everything is made in Dundee and then shipped out to our distributors by the container load or the pallet load,” the chief executive said.
“It’s gone from everything being bottled by hand to spending around £500,000 on equipment to automate as much as possible.”
A proud moment has been getting the product into Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. The firm’s Canadian stores stock a car seat and stroller cleaning product.
It’s all thanks to Walmart’s main buyer being a personal fan of the products.
“I don’t know of any company our size who supply Walmart direct,” said Mr Smyth.
“We managed to get details of the buyer at Walmart and I sent him products to try. He used them at his home and loved them.
“At the moment we are in their stores in Canada and doing well. We are hoping it will go into the US soon. They are also looking at some of our other products.”
Mr Smyth said the credibility of the Walmart deal has helped attract other retailers.
He is also pleased to be going into 70 stores for SPAR Scotland, whose headquarters are also in Dundee.
Future Plans For Dundee Cleaning Product Firm
Mr Smyth says he is proud of what the business has achieved so far but knows he is just beginning his mission to get electrolysed water cleaning products into every household in the world.
“Ultimately we’ve got a phenomenal product,” he said.
“We have a pipeline of 23 categorises that we are planning on developing over the next 18-24 months – you can use this product for so many applications.
“We find that people just need a little bit of education and when they get it, they love it.
“I want to keep the manufacturing in Dundee. The fact this is made in Scotland carries a lot of weight among international distributors. They know how good our water is because of our whisky.
“Our factory at West Gourdie Industrial Estate is 10,000 sq ft and still has a lot of capacity. We’re ready to increase production quite considerably.”