Member Article

Teeth whitening entrepreneurs’ reasons to smile

There’s some irony in that three men now responsible for a teeth whitening firm reaching £1 million turnover started their entrepreneurial streak by selling sweets at school.

North Easterners may already be familiar with Middlesbrough’s Whitewash Laboratories - having gone from strength to strength in less than four years.

Founded in 2010 by childhood friends Tom Riley, Matthew Lloyd and Chris McPhillips, the firm is marketing teeth whitening strips - a concept new to the UK market, which has traditionally focussed on tray methods.

Matthew Lloyd, who is still a practicing dentist and works part-time on the business, and was responsible for spotting the opportunity to import the product from the US.

Tom explained: “As a dentist, Matthew was trying to sell whitening, but most customers were turned off by the price. We decided to launch the strips technique as its more efficient for the dentist and more comfortable for the patient.

“We built a whole product range around the product. At first, there was quite a bit of work in convincing dentists to adopt this new technology.

“Many are happy to stick with traditional methods, but there’s a new breed of dentist now, who have diversified and may be offering services like botox. They’re really switched on to the market in the UK - and they got our whitening strips concept straight away.”

Having established themselves dentists, the three entrepreneurs began to develop their own cosmetic dentistry products - including brushes and whitening gels with silver particles in - a natural antibacterial.

With a diverse product range under their belts, including a sonic toothbrush, the three set about building their brand.

Tom added: “We are really keen to give patients an element of the luxury shopping experience, which is not something you typically associate with the dentist.

“High quality packaging and attractive bags and display cases for our products help this. We’ve now build a demand in the dental sector in the UK, as well as across distributors in other countries. We’re now stocked in around 1,000 dental practices in the UK, and in about 25 different countries.

“Now, the aim is to build demand from the customer side. We want patients to be going into their dentist’s clinic and requesting our products, not just being recommended them.”

Taking inspiration for Whitewash products from high-end cosmetics brands, Tom and the team decided to counter the loud and brash stylings of many dental products and angled their brand as the “Apple of the tooth whitening world” - with toned down designs.

One of the firm’s more recent products was designed by the team who worked on many of Estée Lauder’s ranges.

The potential for export is huge and the team have been proactive in selling overseas from the word go.

Tom added: “A lot of British companies don’t realise that their ‘made in Britain’ tag can really carry a lot of weight when they’re looking abroad. Overseas markets love the designed and made in Britain aspect.

“About a year ago we decided to put a little Union Jack on the back of our packaging, along with a line saying: ‘designed and developed by British dentists’. It just reinforces that message.

“We’ve worked with UKTI through the Passport to Export programme, and we’ve also generated a lot of international leads ourselves through the website. There’s also been a few trade fairs, including the biggest European dental fair in Cologne, last March.”

The export market has also led Whitewash to develop white label products for customers in Croatia and Kuwait.

Whitewash are now sizing up Spain, France and Italy as their next target markets as the business continues a period of reinvestment in product development.

“It was always the case that when a patient asked their dentist for teeth whitening, they got whatever was in the cupboard. It’s our mission to change that and bring a whole range of products targeted for specific needs and budgets,” added Tom.

“If a dentist gets asked about teeth whitening now, they can use our brand to build a package to suit the patient’s budget, lifestyle and ambitions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .