Meet The Founder: Propelair – The Patented Rest room Know-how Saving Water and Cash

Enjoyable truth, regardless of unimaginable advances in sanitation and related facility infrastructure, a rest room at the moment seems precisely the identical because it did within the late 1800s. 

So Propelair constructed a brand new bathroom – one which’s engineered for a contemporary world and a greener future. Utilizing patented expertise, Propelair has developed what they consider to be the world’s lowest water-flush bathroom system, supporting industrial prospects to scale back prices, enhance hygiene and save the planet, one flush at a time.

We sat down with ex-Dyson Managing Director, and present CEO of Propelair to search out out extra in regards to the enterprise on a mission to revamp sanitation expertise – for good.

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What’s Propelair all about?

Our mission is to avoid wasting the planet… one flush at a time! Our imaginative and prescient is to be the sanitaryware enterprise with the best affect on water saving. Let’s take Roca, a tremendous agency that sells round 35 million items a 12 months. Once we attain that scale our homeowners will probably be saving c17 trillion litres of water yearly! That’s greater than all the South Africa’s annual freshwater withdrawal*.

We consider we are able to do that by innovation. We’re on the bleeding fringe of sanitaryware expertise and we’re trying ahead to all the opposite revolutionary modifications we are able to make to the washrooms that can enhance consumer expertise and environmental affect.

*Aquastat, South Africa 2013

How is Propelair disrupting the market?

Most put in industrial bogs nonetheless use 9 litres of water per flush on common. Propelair’s modern answer makes use of 120 litres of air to propel simply 1.5 litres of water per flush into current drains, in simply two seconds! This facilitates huge water financial savings with out compromising, in truth bettering on, efficiency – frankly there ain’t a lot that 60 litres of air a second can’t shift! This protects our prospects cash and reduces water processing, thereby lowering carbon use. With its sealed lid, our product is extra hygienic than a standard bathroom, lowering aerosolised germs, together with Covid-19 by as much as 95%.

You could have heard of Peter Thiel’s 10x rule, whereby a product have to be 10x higher than present choices to be a great disruptor, for which individuals will probably be keen to alter their behaviour. The mixed advantages of the Propelair system places us nicely above 10x.

We’ve now offered almost 4,000 items throughout the UK and South Africa and have signed on 6 gross sales companions, 11 gross sales Associates, and 9 set up companions.

How did your earlier profession expertise put together you for this enterprise?

Instantly previous to becoming a member of Propelair, I spent 12 years at Dyson and Aqualisa, each innovators of their respective fields. My time at Dyson not solely gave me the chance to see a number of the smartest innovators, it gave me tangible expertise within the industrial washroom market. 

How does Propelair stand out amongst its competitors?

The first water saving applied sciences are compost, maceration, and vacuum. Composting just isn’t sensible in most industrial settings and macerators are inherently temperamental and dear to keep up. Vacuum is prohibitively costly, having to exchange a constructing’s infrastructure. The Propelair system connects to current drains. 

Due to this fact, our actual competitors is the usual twin flush bathroom, which have poorer flush efficiency due to the diminished water. So, we stand out by saving water, saving homeowners cash, and bettering hygiene. Have I mentioned that earlier than?

What modifications have you ever seen for the reason that onset of the Covid-19 disaster and the way have you ever tackled them?

The Covid disaster has been difficult for a lot of and we’re no exception. Lockdown has meant urgent pause as our prospects went residence too! We needed to react rapidly to scale back short-term prices while nonetheless offering service to current prospects: Some workers have been positioned on furlough; we utilized for presidency assist; and located artistic methods to enhance money outflow. 

On a private stage, we targeted on the welfare of the staff – to create a protected working surroundings for these finishing up the core capabilities, but in addition ensuring these at residence and on furlough really feel related and motivated. One of many issues we stay up for are the weekly firm video calls. It’s not simply quizzes, video games and goofing round! It’s been an awesome probability to find out about colleagues; their lockdown habits; and hobbies. This has been enjoyable and rewarding to me and I hope pleasurable and attention-grabbing for everybody.  

On a strategic stage, administration has had time to evaluate focus areas and tailor our technique to a put up Covid-19 world. For instance, we’re fast-tracking the innovation of an auto open/shut lid to cater to the necessity for higher hygiene and likewise, we’re trialing a low-capex answer; a cost plan that aligns with the associated fee saving profile of the product. We all know most companies may have much less money and this makes the cost-saving good thing about the product much more compelling.

What would be the biggest problem going ahead?

Considered one of our biggest challenges will probably be balancing the will to scale rapidly and effectively, with upkeep of high quality and repair. Our associate mannequin is engineered to scale, however we’ll have to keep away from temptation to hurry growth into new markets at the price of our model. We are going to proceed to be selective about our companions, and quite a lot of focus will go into coaching, monitoring and supporting them to make sure high quality and repair is as much as the Propelair normal, even when which means reasonable delays to our growth plans.

Good corporations focus. We plan to develop our footprint in South Africa and launch into the Center East, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Right here, we’ll bolster our gross sales, advertising, and repair groups modestly, as we leverage our partnership mannequin to realize progress. Long term, now we have our sights set on bigger water-stressed markets such because the US, India, and China.

How has the expertise developed and improved over time?

Right this moment’s answer is the results of almost twenty years of trial and error – working with numerous universities and prospects to good the expertise, usability and aesthetics. We at all times search for methods to enhance the product and not too long ago we redesigned the lid to be a clear ABS plastic, not solely giving the product an attention grabbing recognisable design but in addition giving customers confidence within the effectiveness of the flush motion. This month now we have up to date our management unit to offer suggestions to providers engineers and is the primary a part of the good connectivity.

What new options/plans do you’ve gotten within the pipeline?

Constructing a wise, IOT related system is the undertaking, about which I’m most excited. It can permit real-time monitoring of utilization, water financial savings, diagnostics, some block detection and extra. It can additionally permit us to launch a “savings-as-a-service” answer, whereby prospects will pay little capex upfront, and pay a month-to-month payment to entry a full providers and upkeep program. 

This will probably be nice for the client, permitting them to pay for set up by water financial savings over time, not all upfront. It can additionally give them entry to higher information and reporting, diminished down-times and a hassle-free upkeep program. It can additionally allow us to unlock new long-term contracted income streams and enhance our reference to homeowners and the product.

What will get you up within the morning?

I share this reply with everybody at Propelair. As Simon Sinek says, “the perfect corporations begin with why”. Why does everybody within the staff get off the bed within the morning? It’s to assist (homeowners and customers) save water, enhance hygiene and assist save the planet… one flush at a time!

To seek out out extra about Propelair, go to the pitch.

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