Latest / Best of Business / Chris Larcombe: Do Not Disturb Sleep Company founder on the company securing a multi-million dollar deal in the US

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Chris Larcombe: Do Not Disturb Sleep Company founder on the company securing a multi-million dollar deal in the US · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks Be follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Now, I've got some good news for you. As in
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  Speaker 2: a good news story in New Zealand business Do Not
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  Speaker 2: Disturb Sleep Company has secured a multimillion dollar deal in
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  Speaker 2: the US. And what's better is that they're using wool
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  Speaker 2: and their products. And with me right now is the
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  Speaker 2: chief dream officer and the founder, Chris Larcom. CHRISMS. Pronounced
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  Speaker 2: your name.
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  Speaker 3: It sounds pretty posh.
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  Speaker 2: How do you pronounce it?
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  Speaker 3: Lacum lacom, Yes, really fast, lacum lacum.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Well, I feel like it's the name. We need
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  Speaker 2: to get used to it and learn because you guys
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  Speaker 2: might do some amazing things here. Will You haven't named
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  Speaker 2: the partner that you've signed with.
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  Speaker 3: Why is that it's very fresh and the lawyers have
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  Speaker 3: only just given me the okay to do that. But
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  Speaker 3: his name's Ezra. It's based in Chicago, and he's just
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  Speaker 3: come out of a twelve year building a mattress making
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  Speaker 3: business that was doing thirty million or so a year,
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  Speaker 3: and he wanted to get into other products and he
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  Speaker 3: fell in love with this wool our friends wise Wool,
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  Speaker 3: who we buy our will from. The greatest wall you
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  Speaker 3: can use for sleep products introduced us. It was only
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  Speaker 3: about six weeks ago and the war started about the
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  Speaker 3: same time, but it didn't stop this from happening. And
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  Speaker 3: on Good Friday, which is now I call ef and
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  Speaker 3: Good Friday, he signed.
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  Speaker 2: Brilliant now, so he's making the mattresses. So what you're
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  Speaker 2: making is arguably complimentary. Right, you've got the pillows, you've
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  Speaker 2: got the sleep masks. What's the next sleep miss?
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  Speaker 1: Is it?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a new product, the sleep Miss, with some
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  Speaker 3: botanical oils in there to help knock you out as
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  Speaker 3: you put your head on your pillow. But actually he's
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  Speaker 3: finished with his mattresses. He actually decided to leave his
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  Speaker 3: family business and he wanted to start something different, go
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  Speaker 3: down a new path, but use all his experience with
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  Speaker 3: online Amazon marketplace, running his own Shopify site, which is
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  Speaker 3: what I built for ourselves. So he's got all the experience,
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  Speaker 3: he's got the connections, and he's just values alignment, ethics,
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  Speaker 3: environmentally responsible. Everything has to be the story back to
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  Speaker 3: the farm. So he just fell in love with everything
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  Speaker 3: we're doing. And I couldn't ask for a better partner to.
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  Speaker 2: Chris, I'm just going to get you to stop banging
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  Speaker 2: your hands on the table because.
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  Speaker 3: It's causing excited to be Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's so annoying for you. I'm sorry. It's
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  Speaker 2: the mayor of Auckland does it all the time. I
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  Speaker 2: have to tell them as well because it's just causing
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  Speaker 2: earthquakes in our heads. What does it mean this partnership?
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  Speaker 2: What does it mean for your products?
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  Speaker 3: For the business. So we are the maker of everything
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  Speaker 3: that you'll see on Do Not Disturbed website and we're
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  Speaker 3: based in Avendar. We're a commercial workroom. We're old school,
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  Speaker 3: twenty five sewing machines, overlock as a giant Swiss Quilty machine,
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  Speaker 3: big cutting tables, no technology in the business. Yeah, just
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  Speaker 3: very very capable skilled machinists cutters.
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  Speaker 2: Is that point of difference that is good for you?
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  Speaker 2: Or does that seek you?
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  Speaker 1: Behind?
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  Speaker 3: Our greatest point of difference? Why we get to I
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  Speaker 3: don't know the where to control. But it's our product.
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  Speaker 3: We design them, we evolve them, we make them. We
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  Speaker 3: care more than anyone else would ever do to make
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  Speaker 3: those products. The love of the soul that goes into them,
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  Speaker 3: and you actually feel that I believe you do, and
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  Speaker 3: we get the feedback from our customers that there's something
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  Speaker 3: different about them. Even Ezra in Chicago said, never seen
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  Speaker 3: anything light.
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  Speaker 2: So would people pay a premium for things being made
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  Speaker 2: in the old way?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, and also made from New Zealand, which is really
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  Speaker 3: important for his story. He could have chosen to have
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  Speaker 3: our products made in the US, It could have chosen
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  Speaker 3: to have them made in Asia, but he wanted them
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  Speaker 3: made as close to the source of the materials, but
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  Speaker 3: also by the best people that can make them.
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  Speaker 2: So now you've made a point because of course you're
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  Speaker 2: using New Zealand wool, which is fantastic because we're all
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  Speaker 2: looking for ways to use New Zealand wall to keep
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  Speaker 2: this thing going. But you make the point that if
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  Speaker 2: we're not using New Zealand wall, the stuff that we
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  Speaker 2: are sleeping is full of all these little bits of plastic.
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  Speaker 3: Are they microplastics, synthetics, any sort of chemicals they add
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  Speaker 3: to it to say, hey, we're a cooling pillow, coolingjowls
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  Speaker 3: and things like that. Will does that by nature, it's
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  Speaker 3: inherently one of its magical properties. And if you don't
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  Speaker 3: mess with the wool, which is wise, we don't. What
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  Speaker 3: you've got in front of your heather is the of
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  Speaker 3: the wall that came off in the sheep.
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  Speaker 2: There's no vegetable, which is like it's like the stuff
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  Speaker 2: in cartoons. This is like perfect war.
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  Speaker 3: Well yeah, but they haven't had to mess with it
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  Speaker 3: chemical treatment and the farmers are getting a really good
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  Speaker 3: return on that wool, so they want to keep farming.
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  Speaker 3: They don't want to plant pine trees and ruin the environment.
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  Speaker 3: So we just need to grow the demand for it,
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  Speaker 3: which we have been not in New Zealand so much.
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  Speaker 3: It's from the US. We had to look outside New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: We need the money. We don't have the money for
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  Speaker 2: this kind of thing. How bid do you reckon you
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  Speaker 2: could make this company?
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  Speaker 3: I like to look at Icebreaker. Icebreaker started what fifteen
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  Speaker 3: year journey and they sold one Marino T shirt was
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  Speaker 3: their first product, and then they sold the company I
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  Speaker 3: think for two hundred and eighty eight million. Yeah, right,
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  Speaker 3: so I think we can get there. I think everyone
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  Speaker 3: in the world sleeps. For about a third of the
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  Speaker 3: people in America are on pills or some sort of
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  Speaker 3: therapy treatment for help with sleep. So we just need
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  Speaker 3: a small fraction of that market, which we're going to
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  Speaker 3: get and then I believe who knows, five years to
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  Speaker 3: ten years need to set an impossible goal, but we
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  Speaker 3: should get to thirty forty million. That was a sale
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  Speaker 3: coming through the website. So whoever is a sah?
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  Speaker 2: Is that the sound of somebody just spending money with you?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? Thank you? How good is that to the police?
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  Speaker 3: I love the show.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, we do not do not disturb dot co dot
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  Speaker 2: in z it or something.
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  Speaker 3: That's my mum. She's so good. She keeps buying saving you.
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  Speaker 1: I love that from her.
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  Speaker 3: It's distracted. All right.
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  Speaker 2: What was your goal five to ten years?
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  Speaker 3: I want to say thirty million turn over?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, go you? Why not?
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  Speaker 3: You don't want to know what is now? It has
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  Speaker 3: been for the last five years, but it's been horrible,
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  Speaker 3: it is.
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  Speaker 2: And this is the thing, right is that what we
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  Speaker 2: forget is that in order to be the next ice
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  Speaker 2: breaker you have to go through years of earning less
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  Speaker 2: than the minimum wage and really bucking with ut.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's correct, that is correct. We've been there, done that.
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  Speaker 3: Now we're on the next path and we get to
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  Speaker 3: grow the business, double the team and the next year
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  Speaker 3: there's a lot of manufacturing businesses that have shut down,
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  Speaker 3: and there are people knocking on our doors looking for works,
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  Speaker 3: and now we can actually open those doors.
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  Speaker 2: Good stuff. Well, listen, Chris, beast of luck with it,
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  Speaker 2: and we will wait to see when the announcement comes
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  Speaker 2: of who it is that you've signed with. Chris, give
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  Speaker 2: me your surname again, Like them.
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  Speaker 1: Like them?
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  Speaker 2: There you go. Chris Larkham, Chief dream Officer and founder
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  Speaker 2: of the Do Not Disturb Sleep Company, which is to
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  Speaker 2: sign a massive US partnership. Keep an eye on that.
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