Small business, big ambitions: Gem

Continuing our series on FMCG industry start-ups vying for their big break, we talk to Georgia Geminder, the founder of Gem. Geminder caught the startup bug working with Remedy Drinks – then went on to launch her own business a week before a global pandemic broke out! Her natural Gem toothpaste is now stocked by cosmetics retailer Mecca.Inside FMCG: What inspired Gem?Georgia Geminder: I went overseas and spent some time in LA, mainly modelling, but always having that business drive in the back of my mind. I was surrounded by beauty products and I saw a shift towards natural beauty. But I didn’t really see it happening in the personal care space, more specifically in toothpaste. I couldn’t understand why we spent our lives avoiding chemicals, and then we come home and put 20 in our mouth. I tried a couple of the natural toothpastes on the market and none of them really worked for me. I thought they lacked efficacy, they didn’t taste minty enough and they weren’t foaming in the mouth. A lot of them would take out fluoride but they wouldn’t replace it with anything optimal or functional. I saw this space in the market to really create something beautiful, natural, that worked really well and had science credentials behind it. How did you get started?I essentially went on this two-year quest to develop the perfect toothpaste, where I took a lot of ingredients out but then I also replaced them with optimal functional ingredients. I took out things like SLS, triclosan and titanium dioxide, and I replaced them with an ingredient called hydroxyapatite, which essentially has been proven to work as effectively as fluoride, without the controversy. I also added in oral probiotic, essential oils and things that really allow you to get that fresh mouth feeling without brushing with chemicals. I really think sustainability and natural are going to become mandates for the future and I think consumers will look for these products as the sort of basis to shop.Why do you think larger brands have been slow to act?We’re seeing competitors like Colgate and Oral B come out with natural, “better for you” alternatives so I do think that the big brands are starting to see this huge shift, particularly in millennials, towards natural. No one’s really using hydroxyapatite or oral probiotics, which I guess is our unique selling proposition, but I think these big companies have been doing this for 20, 40 years and it’s taking little disruptive brands to really make noise and show them that the market is looking for change.Gem founder Georgia Geminder.What’s your biggest achievement?Our partnership with Mecca Cosmetics has been really great for us to cement ourselves in that beauty world. We’re really trying to position oral care in that beauty landscape. We’re really trying to change the perception of oral care in the market and really trying to make it an enjoyable, beautiful part of your routine. We’ve also launched a breath spray and whitening pen – that’s great for us because we’re really engaging new people in the category that wouldn’t necessarily shop for a natural toothpaste, but they would be more inclined to shop for a whitening pen.Where to from here?We’ve got our online DTC strategy, we’re also sold in Mecca, grocers and dental clinics – they are a big distribution point as well. We’re constantly talking to our customer base and really finding out what our fans want to see from Gem in the next two to three years; whether or not we venture into personal care or beauty or if we stick to oral care, and really become a leader in that space, we’re just weighing that up now.