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Laundry soap entrepreneurs look to R&D for market edge

Published:Friday | October 25, 2019 | 12:15 AMHuntley Medley - Senior Business Writer
Rudolph Brown/Photographer 
Andrae and Tamara Lynch, founders and owners of soap company Image & Glory Laboratories Limited.
Rudolph Brown/Photographer Andrae and Tamara Lynch, founders and owners of soap company Image & Glory Laboratories Limited.

Neither Andrae Lynch nor Tamara Lynch has a degree in chemistry, Andrae’s university studies in the subject having been cut short by illness some years ago.

But the enterprising Jamaican couple have drawn on a shared passion for experimentation and discovery to formulate a laundry detergent, Glory laundry gel, that now stands toe to toe on supermarket shelves across the country with leading local and global brands.

The detergent, according to its creators, has outperformed most of its top local and global rivals available here in tests conducted at the University of Technology Jamaica for deep cleaning, stain removal, colour care, cost-effectiveness and eco-friendliness.

This claim is supported by financier Development Bank of Jamaica, DBJ, which gave the Lynches an award for innovation and pumped in $4 million in grant funding in 2016 to help them scale up their business, Image & Glory Laboratories Limited.

With mentorship that the two deliberately sought out from business veteran, investor and former Sagicor Jamaica Group Chairman R. Danvers ‘Danny’ Williams, they have now grown sales to $12 million a year and outsourced production and distribution.

In its first year of operation, in 2013, sales at Image & Glory amounted to $127,000; in 2014 that climbed to $2 million; and then $2.5 million in 2015.

In an interview with the Financial Gleaner, the entrepreneurs disclosed that they have made a new research and development, R&D, breakthrough that will increase the environmental protection quotient of their product, while making it even cheaper.

And they are venturing beyond detergents with at least one other laundry-related discovery, which they are not yet ready to make public, as it awaits local and international patents.

The Lynches are perennially in R&D mode, spending most hours of every night and day together in their lab. Glory gel is now in its 32nd formulation.

They say the new discoveries will provide major new washing solutions and revolutionise the business segment in which they still operate as micro entrepreneurs, but with plans to become big global players in an international market valued at US$200 billion.

The entrepreneurs need a lot more funding to further scale up production and distribution of Glory laundry gel, commercialise their latest invention, build and outfit their own manufacturing plant and second lab in Portmore, St Catherine, and bring the latest discovery to market.

They have begun to restructure the business and get business development training and financial advice towards ultimately listing on the junior market of the Jamaica Stock Exchange.

With all revenues from the business reinvested into research and development and production, the Lynches have invested another $4 million in the new manufacturing plant.

A few years ago, they pitched for angel investor funding through First Angel Jamaica and was selected for a deal that valued Image & Glory at about $86 million. But they chose to pass it up.

“We were working out some issues in the business at the time, had just applied for the DBJ funding and did not proceed with the deal,” Andrae disclosed.

But with the business now more streamlined, they are back in search of equity financing, having so far steered clear of bank loans. Talks are under way with one potential investor, a former university colleague of Andrae’s who is interested in bringing Image & Glory’s products to market in Canada.

Andrae and Tamara are products of Kingston’s gritty inner city: Andrae grew up in Rae Town while Tamara is from the Jarrett Lane community off Mountain View Avenue.

Married since 2010, their sheer determination to become successful business operators is reflected in the name of their company and flagship product.

“We knew we would be going up against big multinationals … all the big imported brands, and that it would be war. The name speaks to what we want to achieve. Glory is about excellence. It is about winning. We are going to war for glory,” they said.

But just how did the couple come up with the idea to get into developing and commercialising a detergent? Well, it began with a stain, a very stubborn stain that Andrae used an entire pack of a leading powdered detergent trying to get rid of, without success.

“There must be a better soap,” he recalled muttering to himself.

The couple then set up a small lab in a corner of their bedroom to create that better soap.

“I had some training in chemistry, having started studies at The University of the West Indies after leaving Campion College. Tamara has had an amazing set of experimenting and research and development skills since she attended Vauxhall High,” Andrae sadi.

Surprised at challenges

The Lynches say while they expected the road to sustained business success would not have been a walk in the park, they have still been surprised at, and hurt by, some of the challenges they’ve had and continue to encounter.

Some partnerships, for example, have worked better than others, and the Lynches say they have had to be vigilant to protect their intellectual property and ensure that they are not taken advantage of in business dealings.

A fighting spirit and the will to achieve are traits common to the partners in life and business, who both say self-confidence has been the key to their success so far.

Case in point: having seen R. Danny Williams being interviewed on television, they knew they needed his kind of business advice to advance their project. So, they placed a call to Sagicor to seek him out and couldn’t believe their good fortune when they were not only immediately connected to him, but got an invitation to visit his home to discuss the business idea.

They are effusive with praise for their business mentor who provided advice, guidance and network links for more than a year, free of cost. That help from Williams included a connection to distribution company. Virginia Dare Jamaica, which was the first distributor of Glory gel.

Williams’ wife, Shirley, was credited with setting up the mentoring relationship, having called back the Lynches three weeks after the initial meeting to give them a rave review of the product, a sample of which they had left with the Williamses during their first meeting.

The direct approach also worked as a strategy in opening up markets for Glory gel. At one large supermarket and wholesale chain for example, the Lynches agreed to donate enough products to stock the shelves of four stores, with the chain paying only for new orders. The entrepreneurs recount that the products were sold out within a day and they have been selling there since then.

They recall that General Foods supermarket in Liguanea, Kingston, was the first to stock the product.

Now, with growing sales, but Glory gel still having just under two per cent of the Jamaican detergent market, Image & Glory Lab is looking forward to an even bigger growth curve. The business’ principals say they remain unfazed by their well-capitalised competitors who pour millions of dollars into advertising and new packaging.

“We are here to stay,” they said in unison.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com