Sydney’s Bubzi Co scores Woolies deal with baby nasal aspirator

Along with her husband, the woman has built a brand that brought in $6 million last year and now they’ve now scored their first supermarket deal.

High school sweethearts Angela and Elijah Kim have raked in $26 million since starting their baby business back in 2016 but are “ecstatic” to finally have an Australian retail presence after they scored a major deal with Woolworths.

Elijah has always been a serial entrepreneur, but after eight failed businesses and a $250,000 loss he was “nervous” about starting another venture.

But the Sydney couple, who met when they were 17 and got married 13 years later, had noticed a trend where Millennials around the world were purchasing their baby products on Amazon, as well as setting up gift registries.

So they decided to launch their own baby nursery essentials brand, called Bubzi Co, with a goal of helping parents through the “monumental” change in their life, said Angela.

The newly married couple seized an opportunity within the Amazon Marketplace. Picture: Supplied

Their first product aimed to address a gross problem in babies – snot, mucous and “boogas”, which get stuck as they can’t blow their nose.

“We found that people were obviously looking for a nasal aspirator as an essential when they have a baby but there were a lot of complaints about products already on the market. People were saying it doesn’t suck the mucous or the boogas or the snot from the baby’s nose effectively or they don’t want to buy them as they have filters and don’t want to pay extra to have filters in,” Angela told news.com.au.

“I don’t think electronics were as popular back then and that’s why we designed our aspirator so it’s gentle on the baby’s nose. It has a silicone tip and that actually goes into the baby’s nostril and using your breath you can control how soft or how hard the mucus is sucked out of the babies nose. It’s also easily cleaned, you just rinse it under the tap with soap and water.”

However, given Elijah had been burned in the past with his business ventures, the couple decided they would invest just $1000 to buy a batch of their nasal aspirators and see if they would sell.

It was a move that paid off. Since then they have sold over 200,000 aspirators globally and that one product has helped them grow Bubzi into a multimillion-dollar success.

Woolworths will stock the Bubzi Co nasal aspirators in 308 stores. Picture: Supplied

It was also put to good use when they had their first child in 2019, although Elijah reveals his wife deemed it the “man’s job and I did the majority of it”.

Now Bubzi Co has secured a deal with Woolworths to stock its Premium Baby Nasal Aspirator in 308 stores across Australia from Monday, October 18, retailing for $19.95.

In her pitch to the supermarket giant she mentioned the number of Google searches made for Woolworths and nasal aspirators, which topped 2000 a month.

“I think we are really excited about it because although we have built our brand on Amazon overseas, we are still Australian and Australian parents, so it feels personally significant to be stocked in Woolworths,” she said.

In the first year, the business made $3.2 million and it was only then that Angela felt like she could give up her day job in marketing.

They have sold 200,000 nasal aspirators since launching the business. Picture: Supplied

But since 2016, Bubzi Co’s range has also expanded to 12 products, with a popular addition its DIY clay keepsake kit, she said.

“It’s a keepsake frame, that includes space for photos and air-drying clay and its used to get imprints so impressions of your baby’s hands and feet … and that particular product we have sold over half a million of them,” Angela said.

But the parents admit it hasn’t been an easy journey – particularly with funding the business.

The pair attempted to raise funds by reaching out to various investors, but many requested a large equity share.

Not happy with the situation, they decided to rely on everything from short-term loans to selling a property they owned to inject money into the business.

“At one stage we had about four credit cards, a couple of personal loans and anything we could get our hands on to buy inventory to fulfil demand,” Elijah said.

But the couple are glad they didn’t bring anyone else on.

Some of the 12 products from Bubzi Co. Picture: Supplied

Bubzi Co has now served one million customers worldwide and are also in the top 0.7 per cent of Amazon third party sellers worldwide – but it’s a juggling game, according to Elijah.

“Having an Amazon business is not as easy as people initially assume and requires constant funding to keep up with the fast-paced growth” he said.

“Due to the Amazon algorithm, we can never be out of stock otherwise we lose our rank in the search engine results. In addition, we can’t be overstocked either as we are then paying for that storage. There is an equilibrium that we are always trying to hit, all while continuing with new product development.”

Ultimately, the couple, both aged 36, want to see Bubzi Co become a household name in Australia.