Launching a “home grown’ product into a major retailer like CVS is a newsworthy event. Special thanks to our friends at Inside Indiana Business (http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/) for this great story.
Gerry Dick:
A lip balm brewed in an Indianapolis kitchen is going national. All seven-thousand CVS stores in the country are now selling the product created by Hoosier entrepreneur Dan Gosling. Inside Indiana Business reporter Kylie Veleta is here with the story…
Kylie Valeta:
A professional trumpet player, Gosling originally created a lip balm to soothe and repair lips that take a beating from hours of playing a wind instrument, but he believes anyone can benefit from its formula. As creator of ‘Gosling’s Original ChopSaver,’ he says what sets his lip balm apart from the “ChapSticks” of the world is that it’s made from 100 percent natural ingredients.
He says most major brands are petroleum-based, with added waxes or chemicals.
ChopSaver’s key ingredient is ‘Arnica,’ a sunflower extract a band student told him he used to heal a severe bruise on his lip after a collision on the marching band field. About 10 years after cooking up the lip balm in his kitchen, the musician-turned-businessman hit a high note: CVS is launching ChopSaver on shelves nationwide.
Dan Gosling, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gosling’s Original ChopSaver Lip Care:
“I wanted to create something that was markedly different. If I was going to create something in my kitchen and I had dreams of competing with a ChapStick®—these are multi-billion dollar companies behind these products. Burt’s Bees®, or a Carmex® or Blistex®. Brands that have been around for decades. If I was going to try to compete with them at some point, the product better be radically different and dramatically better. I knew that it was, and that’s why I’ve always kept going with this.”
Kylie Valeta:
He now is competing with the big brands…he’s been in CVS stores for about one month now. You can read more on our website about how he created a “crescendo” of business to land the national deal. Click on “Life Sciences” under the “News” tab.
