When starting their own business, most people tend to stick to the territory they know and have experience in. Most people, that is.
Having worked in sales in the media industry, Peita Pini knew nothing of online retail, manufacturing, textiles or the patent and trademarking process but she didn’t let that stop her. She saw a need.
Weary of the extent of food waste in her home, she set out to fix the problem. She created The Swag.
Her invention would reduce food waste and packaging, saving consumers a lot of money, and prove wildly successful to boot. But the motivation behind it was entirely different.
While on maternity leave with her second child, Peita watched a documentary about human trafficking and Destiny Rescue Australia’s efforts to get children out of the sex trade.
In tears, she headed straight for her computer. She registered The Swag trading and domain names, purchased the URL, set up the company and began the patenting and trademarking process. She had to help, and this was how.
Her goal was to create a revenue stream to help fund Destiny Rescue's work and she believed she had a means to do it. The details? She’d work that out as she went along.
What followed was an impressive tale of innovation, faith and tenacity. It had all started with her rural upbringing.
“Growing up, we were very conscious of food waste and when I had kids it started to come back to me.”
Years of trial and error in her own kitchen had resulted in a system that worked.
“I started to recognise that fresh produce was suffocating in plastic bags.”
Her mum’s method of wrapping fresh herbs in a damp tea towel got her thinking – and experimenting.
“I started making prototypes.”
Eventually she came up with the washable, multi-layered, single pocket final product.
“It creates this beautiful little greenhouse effect, where the vegetables can breathe and hydrate, so they stay alive and nutrient-rich for much, much longer.”
Spurred into action by the documentary, it was time to get some advice. She sought it wherever she could.
She spoke to experts in natural fibre options and their availability and sustainability, then visited factories in India to negotiate manufacturing. She navigated the patent and trademarking processes and researched freight options.
“Much to my husband’s horror, I bought thousands and thousands of Swags”.
But Peita knew she was on to something, because they worked so well. “I had a really good feeling, I was just buzzing with excitement about launching my product.”
After years of development, she went live.
“I launched The Swag through my personal Facebook page. The stock wasn’t even in the country, but she was okay with that. Our web developer said ‘Look, we do this all the time, and you might not get a sale for two weeks”.
So the post went up.
“I was at my girlfriend’s house, we posted The Swag video and we had a glass of champagne to celebrate, we were very excited”.
Peita’s friend Lauren, determined to be the first customer, went online to buy it.
“And there were already five sales”.
“We were amazed! I looked at the sales, and I had no idea who the customers were.
By the time Peita drove home she had more than 50 orders. “I literally burst into tears. It was actually happening.”
The original 14,000 units? “We were out of stock in no time at all”.
Natural and eco-driven Nourished Life, one of Australia’s top online retailers approached her.
“I had no idea what I was going to say or what my wholesale prices were going to be.
“On the spot we did a deal.
“They listed The Swag and we could not keep up with their orders. It became one of their best-selling products, and it broke all their social media records for a newly launched product.
“They said they’d never seen a product launch as successfully as The Swag.”
There are now more than 200 retailers stocking The Swag range in Australia, plus a distributor in New Zealand and the US. The size and frequency of Swag-laden containers just keeps growing.
And it didn’t just impress consumers, her product quickly drew attention from other quarters.
Peita applied to audition for Channel 10’s reality business show Shark Tank.
When she got the casting call, she decided she could do without the distraction, but they were persistent.
“They said very few people get the opportunity to make it to casting.”
So, bunch of Swags under her arm, she gave it a shot, first fronting up to a panel of business people.
“I didn’t really think about my pitch, I thought I’d just go in and talk about my product.
“And they loved it.”
Two months later she was on the show. Her invention got Peita an hour in front of the sharks – successful business people and experts at transforming ideas into lucrative empires – a strategy and mentoring deal with Richards Group, and a good six minutes of airtime.
“Shark Tank’s been fantastic for publicity, tapping us into a whole new audience that we couldn’t have reached as a small business.”
Last year was huge for Peita. In July, Swag Australia started donating a portion of every product sold to Destiny Rescue –whose goal is to end child trafficking and sexual exploitation.
In August they became a partner of 1 Million Women – women and girls from every comer of the planet building a lifestyle revolution to fight the climate crisis.
Most of Swag Australia’s success has been driven by satisfied customers. The product simply works so well, it quickly convinces doubters.
“Over seventy per cent of our customers have heard about The Swag through friends or family.”
The Swag is robust and will last for years, but at the end of their life, simply cut out the care label and compost them with no impact on our planet or wildlife. “Swag customers start looking at other ways they can reduce food waste or single use plastics in their home. The Swag triggers an awareness of how natural and reusable products can often be better than their toxic counterparts.
“We’re even eating plastic now. If the fact that plastic is killing our marine life and wildlife doesn’t worry you. Just think, those plastic particles are breaking down and the fish are eating it, and then we’re eating the fish.
"Plastic is ridiculously toxic to the human body.
“When we waste food, we’re taking that food off the global food market which means we’re literally taking food out of the mouths of the hungry.
“In the future, many of our children might not be able to afford to buy fresh produce.
“There are a lot of things we can do,” says Peita. “There’s plenty of ways we can help with reducing food waste and single use plastics. What’s most important is that we all do something.”
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