Mackbel Films and The Hygiene Co

Dec, 2022

Talking about storytelling on 5AA … David Mackey and the fine filmmaker, director, David loves to profile entrepreneurship and what drives people to greater passions. And this kind of favours David and Goliath story for us. Good afternoon, David. How are you?

Listen to the full interview here.

David 0:14

Hi, Carrie. Very well. Thanks.

Carrie 0:17

Now, what would you like to start with your Mackbel Films and your video storytelling or about the story of the company? Perhaps we’ll start with the video storytelling company.

David 0:25

Yeah, sure. You know, I guess my background, getting into storytelling entrepreneurship was, I began my career as a Pipe Fitter welder back in the 90s, in England and Devon. And then in the late 90s, early 2000s, I took a chance to travel to Australia. And that’s where I began my journey as a backpacker. And despite the many challenges that came away, I was determined to make something on myself and settled in South Australia with a newfound appreciation of the power of storytelling. Because all the different backpackers and the people that I was meeting, I just instinctively started writing down what they were telling me and it was just, you know, this then inspired me to pursue a career in video production. And today, I’m doing quite well as a successful entrepreneur and video production, leveraging my skills and storytelling. And I like to try and create some powerful, meaningful content for companies and organizations and have a bit of an eye for detail on a dedication quality, so try and bring these stories to life and make an impact.

Carrie 1:31

And David storytelling has some since the dawn of time being the way that we’ve actually sold things rather than just doing the sell. If you can craft a story around, it stays with people for far longer. And one of your comments and the information you sent me was about how Today things are moving really fast. And our use of really easily distracted by some of the trivial values of mainstream culture where, in a way, they’re not even coming up with their own thoughts and process and they’re not following a story. They’re just being given information that they believe blindly.

David 2:01

Yeah, that’s true. They’re just kind of following on thinking that they’re trying to get themselves sound like people want to hear, but all people want to hear is just the authenticity of why, you know, people are in business, why they started, what, what drives them. Because everybody’s trying to make a buck, everybody’s trying to make a living. But, you know, business is just based on relationships, and trust, isn’t it so you just, the more you can get your authentic story out and show that you’re not actually trying to sell as such, you’re more trying to be of service, you know, hone your craft to be the best version of what your business conveys. And storytelling, I think, really gets to the truth of all that, you know,

Carrie 2:44

David, it’s true to say that if you love what you do, you’ll never work another day in your life. And sadly, that’s not true for many people.

David 2:50

Yeah, I reckon. I love what I do. And so it does take a lot of hard work and a lot of cracks to understand and you got to really listen to what the client is looking for, but also listening to what the what the client clients are wanting as well and that can then remove all the unconscious biases that often gets brought up in different marketing teams and moving on I didn’t realize that what the you know, the actual customer is thinking of these days and then that’s how you break new ground and you reach you know, new ventures with their businesses to develop new relationships with their customers and it’s just a big win win.

Carrie 3:32

And David we’ve products is the story behind the product sets apart and offers a differentiation when you make when consumers are making buying choices, which is why the story is so important. So this David and Goliath COVID Good news story about the environmentally focused entrepreneur who was actually in his father’s business making non toxic waterproofing membranes the construction industry and then move to making plastic free wet wipes taking on Dettol and Clinell. Now that must have been a really interesting story to document.

David 4:04

Oh, boy it was, I first spoke to Phil. It was way back in January 2021. And he said, Look, this is only ever gonna happen once and I thought I understood at the time of what he was getting into. He was having to decommission his old plant, which was serving the construction industry, like you say with waterproofing treatments. And, you know, he started that business with his father over 30 years ago. So theres a bit of emotional impact in there. And then he had to, you know, just develop the new products and then re and reinstate this whole machinery and he had delays. They had to set up the whole infrastructure. And over the year, I’ve really got seeing just how much this guy was taking on. And throughout the year he had a business partner who co founded the company with him as well not in our health and spend together there. They’re just really pursuing because it’s just a it’s just a massive underdog story because he got a call from the SA government in the height of COVID Asking these people to create some sanitizers products and then as the conversation went on they found out it was still found out that some nobody in Australia was making wet wipe product and there was just a massive shortage show all the secondary medical aged care facilities and hospitals they were just using these little medical swabs that you use for blood tests so wipe down railings.

Carrie 5:36

tiny so not very adequate to the task.

David 5:39

So he went into all the supermarkets and found nothing was being made in Australia at all and a lot of it was all made in plastic and yeah, that’s when he made made the decision say Oh, this is what I’m doing. I’m going for it and then it was called

Carrie 5:53

The Hygiene Co., Yeah, how does how does he gear up for that? You’re saying he changed some of the layers within a factory to do that do you have to start from fresh?

David 6:04

Well, he literally had to start from fresh so his company’s called the manufacturing companies called The Hygiene Co. but the products and the wet wipes products that he’s gonna have on the shelves both him and Corey are called CleanLIFE

Carrie 6:19

on shelves now, David,

David 6:21

I think they’re gonna be they are on shelves in the Foodland store down in Henley Beach and also Chemist Warehouse are starting to put them into their stores as well so those have been the two major retailers that have jumped on board within straightaway and it’s just being so give you a feeling the final scenes of him with his packages with his products a small real underdog there with his products right next to the huge brands have settled and in Clinell and the Pine O Clean have learned was just it’s not the sexiest subject in the world when you think about it now just a wet wipes and stuff like that it really isn’t. But if you’ve got goals in behind it is yeah, it’s just phenomenal it’s just nothing short of epic so we’re hoping to get some interest from from broadcasters if we can once we’ve got the final film made and to see if they’ll treat it as like an Australian story is something great

Carrie 7:21

But we should be supporting everything we can that is Australian I know that during the time of COVID Look at the RAT the all of the testing units always none of them made here surely we could have made so many things here which was added to our country’s bottom line.

David 7:36

Yeah, well that was the big thing that Phil and Corey all rolled outside you know they just boy the manufacturing was just taken all offshore. It just left you know just left Australia with its sovereign capability so vulnerable as is what Cogan says what kind of reset as it went on. They found how much was being made out of how much was made of plastic and you’re talking hundreds of millions of kilograms plastic. And what is actually in a wet wipe pack comes into Australia. It’s like they’re importing swimming pools, or like backyard swimming pools into Australia’s it’s 75% of the what goes into a wet white packet it is water. And so all that is generating harmless Will that really get all the statistics that started coming out, it was just mind boggling that this was going on behind the scenes for you know, on the build for this thing. You know, people don’t know about it.

Carrie 8:34

And they’re very environmentally unfriendly, those things take forever to break down unless they’re actually specifically biodegradable as CleanLIFE is

David 8:42

they never leave the earth

Carrie 8:45

It’s a bit sad to think that cockroaches and wet wipes will be the only thing left on the earth. So David, this is something though, that they could actually assist other organizations. I mean, there would be countless products because what I always get concerned about is when we see all these old factories sitting there that have obviously got machinery, a lot of them could be transformed to produce modern day items, rather than just being left to rot.

David 9:15

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think The Hygiene Co or CleanLIFE, they’re reliant on getting their fabric from overseas, the plant based fabrics as far as I understand, but it’s reliant still on that. So they’re trying to generate some manufacturing for some more fun companies here that kind of start making the fabric that go into the wet wipes There’s all kinds of potential so I know that they’re getting more positive interest from from the government so hopefully, it’s just going to gain more ground.

Carrie 9:50

And David, this is where the government needs to step in because it needs a coordinator or project management approach where they’re bringing people together. It’s a bit like that she needs a register where they can sit there literally with a jigsaw and put together the pieces.

David 10:03

Yeah, absolutely i think a lot of procurement is all relied on overseas manufacturing at the moment. Yes. Here you are with Phil and Corey with they’re CleanLIFE products and Hygiene Co orders right here in South Australia but still they’re not on there. So it’s it’s an interesting time that they’re having to wade through to try and get the you know, get on board because like you say it’s a Wet Wipe, how hard can it be?

Carrie 10:29

So what can the public do? What can our listeners do to support David?

David 10:35

I think just contact The Hygiene Co. or look for the products on the shelf. So CleanLIFE products. They literally are serving everything from floor wipes to tradie wipes. I think we’re going into Bunnings as well.

Carrie 10:49

When it goes to Bunning’s they will do well there, that place is packed.

David 10:55

Yeah, absolutely. So they gradually getting more interest from the major retailers. So it’s not going to be long before you know the Australian brand is going to be celebrated.

Carrie 11:05

Sounds fantastic. Well, David Mackbel Films, so you’re there helping these people share their stories. Hope to see some more of this and find out what local entrepreneurs are doing.

David 11:15

Thank you. Thanks, Carrie.

Carrie 11:17

Thank you for coming on the show. It’s very interesting. Who would have thought that about wet wipes that there’ll be here until the end of time.

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