15 minute read
CEO INTERVIEW
These must be exciting times for Flexi-Hex?
It’s super exciting. We are growing rapidly. We’ve just turned over what we did last year in the first six months of this year. We’re now up to 13 people from a staff point of view and starting to move globally with our strategy as well, starting to open up the US market and also the Asia Australasia markets as well. 80%-90% of our revenue currently is in the drink space within the UK. And we’ve started to push that out into Europe, but there we are also starting to get traction into new market sectors such as cosmetics and electronics. of a poor consumer experience we had of buying a surfboard online, arriving covered in bubble wrap. Both myself and Will took it on as a project to see if we could develop a packaging solution for surfboards. So, the first six to eight months of the business was 100% in the board sports markets
A fascination of and exploring where we could go with that. But creating form in we quickly realised the opportunities in a number three dimensional of other markets and even now, the further we ways and get into the business the potential just becomes exploring different greater and greater with materials how the product can be applied to different markets and different products.
When you first came up with the concept, was the drinks market the first one in mind?
No, the product was originally designed for surfboards. The idea came off the back We brought in an account manager for board sports, but that’s now becoming all sports, using Flexi-Hex potentially for tennis rackets, for snowboards, for skis. The product works really well for all these awkward shaped products. It just flows around and forms this shell-like protection around the product.
I received a bottle through the post the other day, with the Flexi-Hex packaging. I must say it’s a thing of beauty, but I’m guessing quite expensive to produce?
We are starting to become pretty competitive in the market, but yes, it was a chicken and egg thing when we first started. It’s incredibly difficult. We started the business just buying one pallet of product and you can’t compete on that. But we are starting to get to a point where we’re looking at automation for the products, and that is going to have a big effect on the unit price. We’re currently probably around 25% more expensive than plastic products on the market. But we have a number of unique USPs with the product and we can get upwards of 9,000 bottle sleaves on a single pallet. So yes, there is a slight difference in the prices of the products, but that’s getting more competitive.
BoexSam
We meet Sam Boex, creative director at sustainable packaging start-up, Flexi-Hex. Having recently secured a second round of investment worth £1.25 million, Sam together with twin brother Will have been taking the global packing industry by storm, with their patented paper honeycomb design.
And with the new investment you recently received, does that go towards that production process and getting prices down?
We just had a round of investment from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment
Fund and it’s great to have them on board. The investment for us is about growing the business into different territories - moving the business into the US and also into Australia. And using that capital to be able to create that level of growth, because we now have a growing number of customers and distributors within the UK and also Europe, which we’ve got a feed product to.
Expanding into other territories like the US is super exciting. We have a big partner over there we’re working quite closely with who are one of the biggest packaging companies in the US. We’re in good conversations with them in regards to how we can introduce Flexi-Hex into the US and scale up quite rapidly. sort of obsessed! But rather than sculpture, I wanted to develop and create stuff which had functions. So, design was the root for me.
So after the foundation, I went to Newcastle University, because there weren’t any 3D courses in Falmouth at that time, it was pretty much art based courses. And I had to be by the coast because I surf so Newcastle was one of the options.
What’s the competition like? Is the product patented?
We have been quite strategic. Right back at the beginning, when we first developed the product, we had a slight eureka moment on the product and thought this has potential. So one of the first things we did was go down that patent process path, which is incredibly lengthy and very expensive. But it has been worth it. So, we hold the patents in the UK, we also hold a patent throughout Europe. And we’re patent pending in the US and Australia. And we also hold a patent in China as well.
Going back to the very beginning, you went to university in Newcastle?
Yes. I became interested in three dimensional design on a foundation course at Falmouth University with a brilliant teacher there called Hillary. She showed me a fascination of creating form in three dimensional ways and exploring different materials. I became quite
You couldn’t get much further away from Cornwall than Newcastle!
I think it was really healthy for me. Obviously, I had my twin brother, but we kind of went our separate ways. He went to Plymouth University. I went to Newcastle, which was really far away, but it was a brilliant learning experience and I met some brilliant people. So yeah, I learnt a lot.
But at the same time I really had a strong draw back to Cornwall. I thought I’d have to leave the county because there weren’t that many jobs in 3D design in Cornwall at the time. But actually I ended up getting a job with Gendall Design in Falmouth. It was at the same sort of time that the Eden Project was starting as well, so I became quite involved working with them, working on exhibitions and signage. So I cut my teeth at Gendall Design and then left after around three years to start my own business along with my twin brother Will.
Was that always the plan, for you and Will to start you own business? And how do your skill sets complement each other?
Both my parents are self employed, so it’s never daunted me. And yes, we actually work brilliantly together as directors in a business.
We’re identical twins, but we’re also mirror twins. I think it’s my right side of the brain which is more dominant, which means I’m more of the creative one, but Will’s left hand side of the brain is more dominant, which means he’s good at organisation and systems and processes. It’s a perfect, complementary kind of partnership within the business and gives us very clear roles.
How long before then had the idea been in the development stage?
Wouldn’t it be easier running a business like this in, I don’t know, Manchester, London or Birmingham, rather than Porthleven?
We’ve always said we don’t want to that business defined by where you are. We always said we want to run a successful, global business from Cornwall. Yes, it might have been easier for getting flights and the travel situation but, you know, with the pandemic, everything was shut down anyway. And we can have two or three meetings a day all over the world on Zoom. It’s just not an issue basically. And we’re attracting great staff, not just from Cornwall, but from outside Cornwall as well. I’d say around six to eight months. It was an idea I was developing while we were running the Boex business. It was just an idea I kept coming back to, develop it a bit further, but without having the confidence to take it off the shelf. It can be incredibly daunting and it’s something I haven’t really done before. It can be incredibly exposing, creating something, a product which no one has done before, and then you really don’t know how people are going to react in the marketplace. Emotionally it can be quite draining to expose yourself like that and financially it was quite risky as well.
So, when does a product become a business? Was there ever an idea of maybe just taking it to other companies and let them develop it? Or was it always going to be something you did yourself?
And we’ve got a good little office here. We’re 50 yards from the sea, which is brilliant. “We couldn’t ask for more. And I think everyone within the business is excited to have this opportunity to be part of a rapidly growing business.
Do you still run the Boex interior design business or is Flexi-Hex the main focus now?
We’ve been running Boex for 15 years, but we’re just starting to wind that down to give 100% focus on Flexi-Hex. We launched Flexi-Hex in 2018. Again, that’s an interesting one. The first six months was a battle. You could have the best product in the world but you still need to sell and market that product, it will never sell itself. There are probably thousands of inventors and great products out there, which are either sitting in garages or in people’s heads. A huge part of it was getting out there and looking people in the face. They might say, “no, this product will never work” so you have to pick yourself up and say, “you know, I believe it will”. And it’s nurturing those initial relationships, those initial customers and building on those. It’s very much like stepping stones. You get to know your initial customer base, nurture them and look after them and eventually you work up to the bigger businesses and the bigger distributors. But the bigger businesses and distributors won’t take on a product until they see traction in the market because it’s too risky for them. And that’s ultimately the issue, start-up businesses are incredibly risky. So until you get to a certain point, no one is interested. It’s a chicken and egg thing really.
I think part of me at the beginning thought, yeah, I might be able to develop an idea and just hand it to someone, but it’s so far from that. There’s just a colossal amount of work to get the momentum in the product.
And when did you reach that point, or maybe you haven’t reached it yet, of thinking yes, this is great. This is going to work.
(laughs). That’s a good question! I’m laughing because even now, I’m still not 100%! And Will’s like, it’s okay Sam, we’ve sold something like 3 million sleeves. I think it does work! For me, as a creative, there’s never 100% confidence, I’m always wanting to improve the product. But I think I’d say now we’re just coming to a point where we realise the potential of this and letting go of the reins slightly. We’re just about to cross the line with one of the biggest cosmetics companies in the world to use Flexi-Hex for their distribution network. So that’s quite an exciting opportunity, which will open up a lot of potential.
And when you get sort of the investments you’ve had recently, that must be a massive boost vote of confidence. People wouldn’t invest if they didn’t believe in the product.
Yes, it’s huge, obviously from a financial point of view, but also a great accolade in the business, as you say. It’s amazing people can start to see the potential of the products and that’s really reassuring for us as a business and gives us momentum to take it forward.
Where do you see the next five years? Global domination?
I suppose we want the business to be a recognised brand within the packaging industry globally, so yes. We want to be a go-to packaging solution, not necessarily a household name, but recognised within the industry and operating in all the major economies globally and in multiple different market sectors from drinks, cosmetics, electronics, automotive, industrial, across all these different verticals.
I notice on your packaging you’ve got the flat Flexi-Hex branding on it.
Right from the beginning we have been quite strict with our branding, having it on the sleeves. And there’s two elements to that. Firstly brand recognition. With two million plus sleaves we’ve sent out there, we get a constant trickle of inquiries coming in from people who, like yourself, received a bottle and look us up. And then it’s a protection thing. We have the protection of the IP, but if there was no branding on it, then it just becomes a commodity, which could then very easily be copied. So yes, it’s creating that strong brand association with the product. That’s the intention.
Where are the sleeves manufactured?
Currently in Asia, but as you’re probably aware, shipping is becoming an incredibly complex beast at the moment and a difficult one to navigate. Again, it’s a chicken and egg situation. We received many quotes to produce it throughout Europe but they just couldn’t compete with the numbers we were looking at in the beginning. But now we are at stage where we have the capital and partners who are interested in being able to potentially automate the products. The goal is to automate producing Flexi-Hex at local levels. So, to have automation available in Europe, the US and Australia to reduce the carbon footprint of shipping. But like I said earlier, we couldn’t get to the stage we are now without having been competitive on price.
Has the whole experience of setting up Flexi-Hex been very different to your experience of when you started Boex?
It’s been a world apart. I think all business owners probably have a fantasy of creating a product which then creates its own momentum and has this big potential. And I think that this as a business, there’s so much potential. It’s not so much holding back the business to where it could go but just being very strategic in how we move the business forward. Because it has so much potential in so many different areas. And the interest we’re getting, some of the biggest brands in the world are approaching us. So yes, it’s super exciting.
Has everything gone as you expected?
As all your readers will relate to, it’s incredibly complicated running a business. It’s incredibly emotional and it’s absolutely exhausting. You have to rationalise your decisions, and some of these decisions are quite big decisions, you know, for us and the business. There are big ups and big downs running a business.
I think it is everything and above of what we were expecting. But the route to that is also incredibly complex and it’s never smooth. But I think we have to give ourselves a pat on the back to have got to this stage. There are so many elements with starting a businesses, which could go wrong at any point. You’re constantly having to adapt and change to meet your goals.
And has it been more complicated because you’ve been producing something totally new?
100%. I think had we been producing T-shirts, yes, you would have all the same kind of issues with regards to supply chain and manufacturing, but it would have been simpler. Part of it is educating businesses on the product and how it works, what it does, and how you can use it, the sustainability behind the product, and what it could potentially replace. Ultimately, we want to be There are big a sort of generic packaging machine, which could be used for anything you want. But if ups and big we spread ourselves too thinly and make it a generic packaging, suddenly, I think we would downs running quickly lose traction, and it would get quite lost in the market. a business
As the business has grown and you have more staff are you able to delegate more or are you a bit of a control freak?
I think that’s definitely part of running a business, starting to let go of things. At the beginning there was this control element, it was your baby, and also as a start-up business, you have to be good at so many different aspects of the business. You don’t
have a full team who can focus on those one things in particular, a marketing person, sales person. So you’re having to bridge the gap and split the roles, doing a bit of marketing, a bit of sales, some logistics. But as the team has grown, we now have cleared departments within that. So myself and Will are able to orchestrate more now and have this very strong team around us who can deliver.
We have probably doubled in staff since last year. We have a brilliant team and wouldn’t be where we are now without them.
Do you anticipate growing the team further in the short term or are you good on numbers at the moment?
I think we’re good at the moment. We’ve got a lot of capacity to be able to grow to the next stage. We want to be an IP business, focused on our IP. We don’t want to be warehousing ourselves. We want to keep this team super lean and super efficient. And I think that’s the strength n the business.
I’m always wanting to improve the product
