Brian Goff and Felim Meade set up Emerald Green Baby to sell infant formula into China. When they set up a digital store on WeChat, everything changed.

What is Emerald Green Baby?

Emerald Green Baby is an Irish company started five years ago to sell products online into the Chinese market. The online market in China is the largest in the world and we began by selling Irish infant formula. We developed a store to learn about the logistics of getting product from Ireland to China and we used it as a learning process.

We then set up a store on WeChat about 18 months ago. WeChat is the main way Chinese people communicate. It has over one billion active users. You can do everything on it from communicating, buying and selling, booking a taxi or even scheduling a hospital appointment. The average Chinese person spends about three hours a day on WeChat and it allowed us to build our following and communicate with our customers. We diversified from just infant formula to selling other health and beauty products.

How important was WeChat early on?

We learned so much from this about how to sell to China, how they communicate, and the use of bloggers and the importance of them to Chinese consumers. We were approached by the EU SME centre in Beijing and they liked what we had done with the WeChat store and they asked us to help other Irish SMEs in this area. We’re now working with several state agencies and companies in Finland, Estonia, Holland, and Switzerland, as well as Ireland, to help them sell their products into China.

Did you have a strong understanding of the Chinese market before you began?

We had no understanding of the market – we just saw an opportunity. We used the knowledge we had on how popular Irish formula is in China and applied that to other similar products as well as the infant formula. We started by selling into Hong Kong initially to learn more about the eastern consumer and then went into China.

Why focus on China?

My partner and I always had an interest in the online market and we all know that traditional retail is shrinking because of the dominance of online. China came about because we both had a strong interest in the country. We had contacts in the food industry which meant we were able to source the formula and sell it into Hong Kong, which then led into China, and we used that as the catalyst to sell more products. Especially now in light of Brexit, we think companies should look at markets like China for the opportunity.

What advice would you give someone looking to export into China?

The Chinese people are very like the Irish in that they like to get to know those they are doing business with. If you go to China and make a deal at the first meeting, it’s a bad deal. Get to know the people you do business with. You need to decide on the tried and trusted solution that you are going to provide in order for it to work. You’ve got to fully commit to the project.

Who inspires you?

The people who inspire me the most are the small business owners. The people who can raise their family, educate their kids and run a business all at once are the real heroes. Supporting local business is so important because you’ll really miss them when they are gone.

If you were to start all over, what would you do differently?

I would’ve hired a company like us if we existed. But in saying that we wouldn’t have had as much fun or got to visit China as often as we did. But we made mistakes along the way and having someone to advise us like would’ve really helped.

Related Resource

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FutureScope 2019 is a conference aimed at promoting collaboration between entrepreneurs and multinationals.

FutureScope, Ireland’s only conference that promotes collaboration between the entrepreneurial community and multinationals, will take place in the Convention Centre Dublin on Thursday, 28^th March 2019.

FutureScope brings together leaders from the technology ecosystem to share perspectives on emerging technologies and how they will shape our future world, providing crucial insights to developing businesses, innovators and investors.

Run by Dublin BIC, the event has become a must-attend event for those most active in Ireland’s vibrant technology ecosystem.

Through panel discussions, tech demonstrations, innovative showcases, and structured networking, FutureScope offers the perfect setting for collaboration.

FutureScope will feature approximately 100 speakers and panellists, with 40 exhibitors. Tickets are currently available here from €89 and are limited to 1200 people.

A special emphasis is placed on purposeful networking and the creation of collaboration opportunities for start-ups, scale-ups, multinational companies, innovative Irish enterprise, SME’s, the research community, investors, academia and state agencies.

FutureScope 2019 promises to be the biggest and best year yet with founders, CEOs and leaders from high-profile companies giving inspiring talks across four stages at the event.

Off-grid holidays in natural settings are becoming very popular with stressed out, ‘always on’ professionals. Zoobox sees the opportunity in this space. 

Irish startup Zoobox sees an opportunity in the world of ‘off-grid’ holidays. The business builds bespoke lodges and then places them in amazing natural landscapes away from the hustle and stress of the ‘always on’ digital world. 

The company burst onto the tourism scene some years ago in Canada, a country with deep forests, incredible vistas and bulging mountains. Zoobox says its experience gives customers ‘an open window to the natural world’. The concept is that humans are in ‘boxes’ looking out at nature. These homes are off-grid and self-sufficient.

The lodgings are eco-friendly, and ‘respect their environment’. Each site is specifically chosen and designs are created to merge with the natural landscape.

We spoke with Zoobox’s head of business development, Laure Hantz-Burnet, who gave us more insight into the idea.

How was Zoobox born?

We started as a real estate development company based in Canada beside a national park. We were the first to design platinum certified passive homes in Canada. 

We realised there was a strong demand to reconnect with nature in a comfortable setting. It makes sense – we spend more and more of time indoors (90% if you are American according to the national human activity pattern survey), we also spend most of the time sitting in front of a screen. We believe people are feeling an urge to unplug and recharge in a natural environment. High-end eco lofts can rent at a similar price of luxury hotel rooms but cost from 20% to 50% less to build and run. Seeing this demand, our company designed a prototype in 2007 that would be the ultimate outdoor lodging experience.

We called it the Zoobox and it immediately got a lot of attention from the media and potential customers. Since we already had contacts in North America and had global ambitions, we decided to launch the Zoobox project in Ireland to help us connect to the European market. We design and produce the units here in Ireland and are preparing to ship them worldwide.

Where will they be placed in Ireland?

The goal is to create a network of five Zoobox sites in Ireland. Today we have sites in progress on the west coast (Galway, Clare and Kerry) and also Wicklow. We also have many interested parties in Donegal and west Cork.

How much they will cost?

For the moment, we don’t plan to sell the units individually. Our business model is based on joint ventures; we design ecotourism sites with local partners. Our sites size will vary between five and 15 units, depending on the local market study.

How successful has it been?

It has been very successful so far. We have confirmed our first order for Canada for 15 homes. We had plans to secure five partnerships in Ireland before 2020, and so far we already have three active partnerships. We are getting loads of demand from abroad from countries such as Iceland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Madagascar and Jamaica.

What are the future plans?

In the next five years, we plan to have five operational sites in Ireland and ten sites abroad. As we push forward with our research and development, and our design, we are finding out that some of our cost-effective solutions to install the Zoobox in remote areas could drastically decrease the construction price of off the grid houses or any houses for that matter.

Zoobox has been very successful in Canada but now plans to build lodges in the Irish countryside.

Irish startup Zoobox has announced their intention to set up five sites in Ireland over the next few years with the west coast the company’s preferred location.

The company burst onto the tourism scene some years ago in Canada, a country surrounded with deep forests, incredible greenery and mountains. The experience provides visitors with an open window to the most beautiful sceneries and gives visitors an unparalleled view of the natural world.

Zoobox takes the natural beauty in nature and makes it entirely accessible and enjoyable by creating comfortable outdoor lodging experiences. The concept is that humans are in ‘boxes’ looking out at nature. These homes are off-grid and self-sufficient.

The lodgings are suitably eco-friendly, and they respect every aspect of their environment. Each site is specifically chosen and designs are precisely created to merge the local and natural landscape while providing an unadulterated and unique experience for visitors and the local community.

We spoke with Zoobox’s head of business development Laure Hantz-Burnet, who gave us more insight into the idea.

Where did the idea for the company come from?

We started as a real estate development company based in Canada beside a national park. We were the first to design a LEED platinum certified building in Canada. Since our passive houses were more expensive than normal ones, our customers asked us if we could rent them out to help them pay the mortgage.

We realised there was a strong demand to reconnect with nature in a comfortable setting. It makes sense – we spend more and more of time indoor (90% if you are American according to the national human activity pattern survey), we also spend most of time sitting in front of a screen. We believe people are feeling an urge to unplug and recharge in a natural environment. High-end eco lofts can rent at a similar price than luxury hotel rooms but cost from 20% to 50% less to build and run. Seeing this demand, our company designed a prototype in 2007 that would be the ultimate outdoor lodging experience.

We called it the Zoobox and it immediately got a lot of attention from the media and customers. Since we already had contacts in North America and had global ambitions, we decided to launch the Zoobox project in Ireland to help us connect to the European market. We design and produce the unit here in Ireland and are preparing to ship worldwide.

Where will they be placed in Ireland?

The goal is to create a network of five Zoobox sites in Ireland. Today we have sites in progress on the west coast (Galway, Clare and Kerry) and also Wicklow. We also have many interested parties in Donegal and west Cork as well so we’ll see how they play out.

How much they will cost?

For the moment, we don’t plan to sell the units individually. Our business model is based on joint ventures; we design ecotourism sites with local partners. Our sites size will vary between five and 15 units, depending on the local market study.

How successful has it been to date?

It has been very successful so far. We have confirmed our first order for Canada for 15 homes. We had plans to secure five partnerships in Ireland before 2020, and so far we already have three active partnerships. We are getting loads of demand from abroad from countries such as Iceland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Madagascar and Jamaica.

What are the future plans?

In the next five years, we plan to have five operational sites in Ireland and ten sites abroad. As we push forward with our research and development, and our design, we are finding out that some of our cost effective solutions to install the Zoobox in remote areas could drastically decrease the construction price of off the grid houses, or any houses for that matter.