South Australian reality TV contestant and entrepreneur Mark Sellar to stock products in major US hardware chain Ace Hardware
AN Adelaide businessman and former reality TV winner has come up with a new invention that will make you ask yourself — why didn’t I think of that?
A COMMON sight at Australian beaches in summer are sunbathers lying down with a T-shirt, towel or cap covering their face in a makeshift barrier to the sun’s harmful rays.
For regular beachgoer and Adelaide entrepreneur Mark Sellar he saw this phenomenon as a problem that needed a solution and came up with Shader: a portable sunshade for the head.
The inventor, businessman and reality TV show winner appears to be on another winner with the product generating $201,000 in pre-sales just two weeks into a Kickstarter campaign and is poised to be stocked in US giants Costco, Dick’s sport stores and the country’s largest hardware chain Ace Hardware.
“It will be a very substantial (order),” the director of Port Adelaide based parent company HGT Innovations said.
“From what our distributor is saying is ‘we want you to be doing 100-150,000 units by Christmas
“He thinks it’s more than doable, that’s what we should be aiming for and that’s what we are gearing up to do ... you’re talking about US$15million worth of product.”
“A lot of our sales (pre-sales) are in the US, we’re doing deals with Dick’s, Costco and Ace at low margin so we can get them pre-Christmas, so we’re in store by Christmas, everyone knows about us and by the time their Spring/Summer comes around we’re in the stores and then our volume should go through the roof.”
He said Shader would be stocked in major Australian outlets by the end of September.
The Shader, to be made in China, will come in a basic and premium model, the latter featuring a solar panel, fan, phone charging port and stubbie holders.
Mr Sellar’s company has made two prototypes which are presently in the US.
They are being marketed on Instagram by his LA-based sister, DJ, model and Instagram celebrity Laura Lux and Australian model and TV host Emily Sears, who collectively have 5.5 million Instagram followers.
He said the product’s success has been generated by in excess of 45 million views on Facebook.
“Once this hits Amazon it could go anywhere,” he said.
The Brooklyn Park resident had short-lived fame when he took home the $1 million prize on Channel Seven reality show The Big Adventure in 2014.
He said he invested the bulk of the winnings into Melbourne industrial property and used a portion to start his first business Fantom Hardware which makes a magnet-activated doorstop which latches into the underside of a door removing a potential trip-hazard.
The product was developed two years ago, is stocked in more than 60 countries worldwide, has racked up 100,000 sales and is due to hit the shelves of the 4700 Ace Hardware stores this year.
“I never thought that in two years we’d be sitting here going we’re going to have to order half-a-million dollars worth of stock and that’s just Fantom, and that’s not even where we are at with Shader,” he said.
“The challenge is now is I am going to need to employ more people, we’re so busy and run off our feet.
“It’s (Fantom) the most boring, non-sexy piece of hardware but we’re the only one doing anything innovative; it’s rare that we don’t have any competition.”
He is aiming to add another two sales staff to his team of five before the end of the year.