How a severe respiratory infection has led John Thomas to take new adventure

Determination and perseverance can surely help one to overcome all obstacles in life. The greatest good of greater number remains the motto of John Thomas, founder of Herbal Strategi, a Bangalore-based company that established a whole new idea of Herbal Homecare products including mosquito repellents made up of herbal ingredients. How a severe respiratory infection has led him to take on a new adventure and finally to set up a brand of his own is worth reading.

How it all started…

John Thomas is a post-graduate in Business Management and Aquaculture. After working for 9 years in various companies, he started his journey with his partner in 1991. Initially, he was into coffee business, representing a big trading firm, Louis Dreyfus, in Switzerland which bought coffee from India and Uganda. They were at the peak of their business when, after 14 years, the long association with the firm ended and his partner parted ways from him. Yet, John did not lose hope and decided to stay. Since he had a strong interest in manufacturing, he began looking for new projects.

Life took a turn when he fell sick after 2008. He had heavy stress and so developed a severe upper-respiratory-tract infection. The doctors forbade him to use chemical repellents for mosquitos because the carcinogenic substances it contained were the cause of the infection. This made him think out of the box and he went ahead to grab this opportunity.

The journey so far

He then partnered with the Central Institute for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), a plant research laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for research and certification.

“They (the scientists) gave me 10 formulations to be tested in the field. They told me that there are over 400 breeds of mosquitos in India with each state having around 150-200 breeds. Kerala is the only state that has 400 breeds as the annual rainfall paves way for all the breeds. I was suggested to do my field research there.”

On doing the field research in four stations, Calicut, Ernakulam, Kottayam, and Trivandrum, he found out that there was only one formulation which was 91% effective. He went on to manufacture this product and started to sell it in small quantities in various supermarkets.

“I started making these products with the belief that there will be people like me who would buy them.”

So, he decided to do a consumer test for which he went to various supermarkets in Cochin, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad. He wanted to know if people were looking for an herbal alternative for mosquito repellents. Astonishingly, 70% of people did not bother about the toxic effects of chemicals. The remaining 30% out of which 65% were new-age mothers who knew about the adverse effects of chemicals on them and their infants.

The first launch and the struggles

It was in 2011 that they launched their product JUST SPRAY and MOSPRAY (room spray and body spray) completely made out of aromatic oils. Initially, he got good responses from consumers but after 6 months, the selling of those products came to a halt. The suppliers started adulterating the aromatic oils and also, the spray bottles had leakage. Due to this, they had to face a huge loss and as they had no experience in manufacturing, they struggled for the next one and a half years in finding out good suppliers of oils and mist sprays.

Things started to work for him when he associated with CSIR-IIIM Jammu to do quality control of his products and in July 2013, after fixing the leakage issues, they re-launched the products in South.

“We had no money at all. Whatever little we had, we used it to promote our products. We faced many problems but we worked day and night to make this work.”

Believe and be unique

“What kept us going ahead is the belief that we had in our products. All the herbal companies in India were selling either healthcare products or personal care products. But there was no herbal alternative for homecare and this very idea is what sets us apart from other companies”

As they succeeded in reaching out to a large number of people, they gradually started to get demands for herbal fabric cleaners, incense sticks, kitchen cleaners, floor cleaners, and many more. All these consumer feedbacks compelled him to make new products and this led to the expansion of Herbal Strategi.

“…And now we are here with 52 products spanning 6 categories of herbal repellents, herbal cleaners, herbal fresheners, herbal hygiene, herbal fogging solutions, herbal pet & animal care.”

“The room fresheners that are used in Air Asia aircrafts are our products. They are completely made of lemongrass oil and lemon oils”, he says proudly.

Not only this, but they have also developed shoe sprays recently which prevents the stinking smell from shoes that arise due to bacteria and virus. Their products are also available on Amazon, Flipkart, and their own website at a very reasonable price.

Message to the budding entrepreneurs

“If you have to succeed in business, the only quality you should have is belief and perseverance. There was a time when I also felt that I lost, but I believed that I was the only one in the market with such products and I stayed on.”

People start a journey and lose hope in midway. What needed to tackle this is to have a belief in yourself and the determination to never give up.