Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM
On the box
Barry Freeder, managing director of housewares supplier Hit Products, talks about his recent appearance on prime-time ITV business series ‘Give It A Year’
for your sofa’ and ‘TableCoaster - the ultimate anti- spill drink holder’. Whilst CouchCoaster has been the star attraction
for a good couple of years now, TableCoaster is performing really well in Europe and America too, with deals already in place with a range of retailers and distributors. I’m also hoping to spend some time creating selling opportunities for TableCoaster through corporate merchandising channels.
What’s your background? After graduating from university with a first-class honours degree in Architecture in 2005, I worked in the property industry for 10 years, qualifying as a chartered surveyor. My last role was an asset manager at a private property investment and development company. I left the industry in February 2015 - the same month in which I founded Hit Products Ltd to launch CouchCoaster. Whilst working in the property industry, I actually set up my first business – an online dating platform – but ran into problems with off-shore development and had to close this down after a couple of years. During my childhood, I had a passion for making things from anything my parents would throw away, so it does feel that I’ve come full circle from then until now with my U-turn of career path!
Tell us a bit about Hit Products. My broad ambition is to develop a range of unique ‘solution’ based products, which solve universal and everyday problems. My assortment currently includes ‘CouchCoaster - the ultimate drink holder
How did you get involved in ‘Give It A Year’? I was contacted by a researcher for the show who happened to see an online article I was interviewed for about start-up businesses. After a face-to-face (recorded) meeting and some follow-up calls, the producers asked me to feature in the show.
Why did you decide to get involved? Because I knew it would be great exposure for my business, and was sold into the show on the basis that the series was being made to ‘champion’ UK business, rather than ridicule it - as per some other business shows we are familiar with.
Did you enjoy the experience? Yes, it was actually quite enjoyable being accompanied by a film crew during key moments during the filming year. Being in business as a one- man band can feel pretty lonely at times!
What feedback have you received since the show aired? The main feedback was that [the show’s presenter] Karren Brady is unlikely to be buying a CouchCoaster for herself any time soon (!). But more importantly, the show presented my business and my achievements during the year in an overall positive light.
Has Hit Products benefited from the brand exposure? Yes, on two counts. First, sales over the first week after the product aired increased substantially, and second, a few members of the public have reached out to me about their own ideas that they would like some help with in bringing to market. In time, I hope to capitalise on this kind of outreach by offering some form of consultation around product development and 'inventing'.
What advice would you give to a product inventor that’s starting out? Talk to as many people as you can about your idea to understand if the pain-point your invention solves is a real problem that lots of people have. Having now met several people who have had years of selling experience in Direct Response Television Sales (DRTV), there is a general consensus amongst them that ‘inventions’ that stand the best chance of success display all of the following characteristics: 1) solves a problem, 2) easily demonstrable, 3) mass market appeal 4) strong price point.
What’s keeping you busy? Having recently completed my largest production run yet in the Far East, I’m currently working on dispatching orders from China to several different retailers and distributors who I’ve built relationships with over the last two years.
What’s the most challenging aspect of your job? Dealing with suppliers in the Far East.
What’s on your agenda? I’m constantly managing sales on Amazon to optimise sales - and everything else seems to fit in around that!
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All about ‘Give It A Year’
Presented by high profile business leader and TV personality Baroness Karren Brady CBE, ITV series ‘Give It A Year’ follows a host of budding entrepreneurs who have decided to go it alone and start a new business. Karren meets them at the launch of each venture’s first year, and revisits them 12 months later to see what they have achieved in that time. The 12-part series began on April 16 and each 30-minute show covered two businesses. The episode featuring Hit Products was screened at 8pm on
Monday August 13. The show ended with the comment that for Hit Products, one year on ‘Debenhams has shown an interest and JML has agreed to a trial run’. Hit Products
managing director Barry Freeder told ‘Housewares Magazine’: “Whilst these statements were true at the time of submission to the producers, neither have materialised into any business.”
September/October 2018
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HousewaresLive.net
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twitter.com/Housewaresnews
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PHOTO: Daniel Hambury
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