Irish Examiner (Money & Jobs), October 2007
By Peter Cluskey
Press Shot
In business start-ups , there are few genuine eureka moments, instances in which a workable idea comes to an entrepreneur perfectly formed, in a flash of inspiration, wholly untainted by doubt or first-time nerves.
Most start-ups are plagued by uncertainty: “will I or won’t I?”, “should I or shouldn’t I?”, “will I make a fortune or will I lose my shirt?” There’s much hand-writing and no guarantee of success.
Ann Marie Durkin is the exception. Her big idea came to her in September, 2005, when her first child, Sam, was born. He was six weeks premature and had to be kept in an incubator. “I remember it was a very stressful time. Sam had to be fed through a tube and to associate the idea of being fed with the idea of sucking it, it was recommended that I use a soother. I just thought I’d open the soother and use it, but the nurses said, “no, you have to sterilise it first. So I had to sit there and wait 15 minutes while Sam cried.
“That’s when the idea just flickered through my mind for the first time: surely, in these days of instant-gratification, I thought, there must be something faster, something already-sterilised that I can use immediately, especially in the hospital setting? I had other things on my mind, so I didn’t think that much about it then.
Steri-Soothers™ are the world’s first pre-sterilised soothers, developed by Ann Marie from the idea she had as she waited by her son’s incubator two years ago.They’re manufactured in Germany, sterilised in Westport, by Isotron, a company which uses gamma ray technology to sterilise medical equipment, and distributed throughout Ireland by Pharmed.
A deal which could see Steri-Soother™ on the shelves of big international retailers such as Tesco, Walmart, Mothercare, Boots and Sainsburys, is nearing completion. Then it’s next stop the European mainland market, and perhaps Canada. It’s been an extraordinary two years for Durkin — who saw the first of her products on pharmacy shelves in July. A picture of baby Sam, of course — now two — graces every package.
“I was very struck, from the start, by the fact that everyone I bounced the idea off, from mothers to paediatric nurses to pharmacists, thought it was such a simple idea. they couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done already. And even now, when I see the Steri-Soothers for sale, I’m still amazed, it gives me an incredible buzz- but they still seem…obvious. I suppose it’s often the simplest ideas that are the most successful.”
So how did Durkin commercialise her inspiration? A business teacher from Granard, in Co. Longford, she’d always wanted to run her own business, but needed to have a unique product that would sell. Suddenly, she had. “I brought the initial business plan to Longford County Enterprise Board and it was an eye-opener.”
In text book style, there followed market research, a financial feasibility study, and a trip to the bank- but the big question mark was over the technology. If this hadn’t already been done, was it because it wasn’t technologically possible?
I had no idea. I decided to look at the pre-sterilised needles and syringes that are use in hospitals and found Isotron in Westport, which specialises in sterilising medical equipment. “The problem was that there was no real safety standard for the Steri-Soother™, because it was a first. So, I decided to apply the standard that is used for all sterilised medical equipment, which is very high and may well never be required for soothers. And then I had to ensure that after being sterilised, it was still in line with E1400, the European safety standard for soothers. Those tests were done by Dr Ann Sullivan, of Materials Ireland, at the University of Limerick. And that allows us to sell throughout Europe.”
Durkin has filed for a patent for the Steri-Soother™, but it’s a notoriously long, drawn-out, expensive process, with no guarantee of success at it’s end.”It’s an issue. But I’ve taken the view, at this stage, that the best line of defence is to be the product leading the market. We are the world’s first, and that definitely gives us a substantial competitive edge. Also, the profit margin for a product this small is not huge, so I’ve decided to go for volume by getting a distribution network in place as widely and as fast as possible.
So far it’s worked, in a notoriously difficult market. “Yes, it’s true: the baby market is well known as very, very difficult to break into. It’s different to any other market niche. If a mother finds a product that works for her child, she’s usually not going to change it. And she certainly won’t be looking around for a cheaper option. Not only that, but she’ll usually return to it for every subsequent child. It’s a market segment with real product loyalty.”
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