family business
HEALTHY OILS, PAINTS, CLEANERS, POLISHES AND MORE
Sister and brother enjoy challenge of marketing German company’s safe paints and natural home maintenance products in U.S.
Dave Block
In the early 1970s, a small group of teachers who worked with handicapped children in Germany included a few hobby chemists, who created nontoxic finger paints for their students. As word got out about these safe paints, schools and hospitals deluged the teachers with requests for them. In 1974, Livos Phytochemistry started manufacturing paints and other natural home maintenance products in Wieren, a city in the northern part of Germany. For the past 15 years, the products have been distributed around the world, including items that eventually became available in the U.S. through a few retail catalogs, mostly in the Southwest.
In 1997, the company made a big marketing push and established an exclusive distributor, Livos Phytochemistry of America, Inc. in Mashpee, Massachusetts. The young business is owned by some of the German company’s investors and Pamela Wills, CEO and president, who got involved through some consulting work that her husband had done for the parent company. The ability to help people with allergies, asthma and other chemical sensitivities is rewarding for Wills, whose mother and grandfather have asthma. “The chance to establish a unique, high-end line of healthy oils and waxes for wood was a big attraction,” she says. “The freedom to locate the business on Cape Cod, an area where we wanted to live, was another.”
Pamela’s brother, Greg Wills, had been working in sales and marketing for a musical instrument manufacturer and distributor in Connecticut. In mid-1997, his sister asked him to join the company, and he came on board at the beginning of the next year as sales and marketing director. “I thought Livos had very good potential as far as making money for my family, but at the same time, I saw this as an opportunity to do something good because of the way the products are made,” says Greg Wills. “I enjoy helping get people away from harmful products and improving their quality of life.”
NATURAL DIFFERENCE
“Responsible” products can have a positive effect on people’s health, notes Pamela Wills. “Indoor air quality has become a frequently cited issue since the phenomenon of ‘sick building syndrome’ appeared,” she explains. “Just in the last three years, Americans have become more aware of the fact that about one-third of the people in this country have allergies and asthma — many of them children, and the numbers are growing. Because we spend about 90 percent of our time indoors, it follows that the air we breathe inside our homes and offices must be polluted. Reducing that indoor air pollution is a very important goal that can be reached by eliminating harmful chemicals from our indoor environments. Products like ours improve indoor air quality and therefore, improve health.”
Product advantages touted by Livos include decreased dust through the repellent qualities of natural oils and waxes, improved air quality through safe odors that do not linger in carpets and upholstery, and better health. About 150 natural ingredients are used in Livos wood varnish, as opposed to about 15,000 in synthetic chemical wood varnish. The company’s raw materials include: Bonding agents — natural resins, oils, glues and waxes, e.g. dammar and larch pine resins, mastic, linseed oil, and carnauba wax; Solvents — water, alcohol, orange peel oil, and isoaliphate; Pigments — plant, earth and mineral pigments; and Other materials — natural preservatives and fillers, mat glazers, etc.
An important component in most Livos products is linseed oil, a thick, golden yellow oil whose efficacy is evidenced by the centuries-old wooden houses that stand proudly in Europe. The oil is made from flaxseeds grown organically by farmers in northern Germany and cold pressed at the factory for use as the main ingredient in oils, waxes, paints and stains. A few examples of the other ingredients are: Orange peel oil, made from cold pressed orange peels for use as a solvent and preservative in paints, stains and thinners; Beeswax from France and northern Germany, used for its softening, elastic, steam permeable, and antistatic qualities in paints and stains; Bergamot oil, made from the fruit of the bergamot oil tree for use as a fragrance in cleaners; Hemp oil, used as a binding agent in paints; and Sunflower oil, used as a nonyellowing agent in paints and stains.
POPULAR COMBINATION
The company’s most popular product is Kunos, a combined natural oil sealer, stain and topcoat. “We like to compare it to polyurethane, because it can be used anywhere that can be applied and then some — floors, furniture, toys, tabletops, countertops, etc.,” explains Greg Wills. “There are a couple advantages to our product. First off, most polyurethane in residential applications is water-based and labeled ‘nontoxic.’ What that means is that the government found the level of toxicity to be acceptable for human contact. What we’re saying is ‘why deal with any level of toxicity?’”
If a floor is finished with polyure-thane, notes Wills, the contractor stays out of the house or room for at least a few days, primarily because of the fumes. “That would be a pretty good looking floor, in most people’s opinions, but it wouldn’t necessarily be scratch resistant, and you’d have fumes lingering in the home for a long time,” he adds. “Studies in Europe show that even fumes you can’t smell stick around for years. With Kunos, the air quality is light years better — even the fumes that you do smell are safe, and they don’t linger. It’s the difference between smelling synthetic solvents versus oranges and salad oil. And most people tell us that it looks better because it accentuates wood grain.”
Maintenance is easier because scratched and marred areas only require light sanding and oiling, as opposed to stripping a polyurethane floor and redoing it, according to Livos. The finish on the wood is as durable as polyurethane or better because it penetrates the wood, bonding with it and hardening it from within. “You get the quality and performance of oil-based and synthetic products, but they’re healthier and safer than synthetic water-based products,” says Wills.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
The task of marketing these products to a largely untapped consumer base is engrossing for Greg Wills. “With musical instruments, you can’t do much to distinguish them,” he says. “These products are cutting edge in the American market, which is far behind Europe. We find that most people get very interested when they find out the products exist. The challenge is getting information out about them and why they’re better. It’s very exciting and interesting to fight this battle.”
Livos targets the minority of consumers more conscious of health and quality than convenience. “It’s certainly more of a niche product than a mass market product,” adds Wills. “We don’t expect to be the next Sherwin Williams, but a growing population is becoming more concerned with health.”
Serving this clientele has meant fielding some unusual requests. One man asked whether Livos had a specific clear varnish that would protect a prize fish for hanging on his wall. “Another pet owner had coated his bird’s cage with a Livos product, and was concerned that his pet seemed to be chewing on the cage more than on his food,” recalls Pamela Wills.
While Livos publicizes the health benefits of its products, there’s a obvious disadvantage in being priced higher than mainstream equivalents. “Two factors keep people buying Livos,” says Pamela Wills. “One, we’re selling good health, not just another brand of furniture stain; and two, on average, Livos products cover twice the surface area of their traditional counterparts. Coverage is so high with Livos products because they must be applied very thinly in order to work properly. Livos products work like a skin moisturizer. If you slather on too much hand cream, what happens? It doesn’t get absorbed. The same thing happens with Livos — less is more.”
The high cost of advertising is another obstacle for a fledgling company seeking to market nationally. But where there are Wills, there are other ways — attending trade shows, networking with enthusiastic users, keeping in frequent contact with relevant publications, etc.
For most of its history, Livos has opened accounts primarily with individual stores in the Northeast and West Coast, such as lumber yards, hardware stores, natural products shops, and even carpet/flooring stores. Custom home builders have provided another market. The company’s products also are included in three venues familiar to In Business readers: the natural consumer goods catalog of Real Goods Trading Corp., Co-op America’s National Green Pages, and the EcoSmart Building Center in New York City, an exhibit of green building resources. Last year, Livos initiated secure online purchasing through its website, www.livos.com. The online store catalog shows product photos and gives descriptions, sizes and prices.
The biggest breakthrough came last fall when Wild Oats, one of the largest natural food store chains in the U.S., agreed to carry the company’s home maintenance line in its over 80 stores in 22 states. “Livos is the only line of natural wood care and maintenance products — such as furniture polish, butcher’s wax alternative, mineral oil alternative and liquid wax cleaner — available through Wild Oats,” notes Pamela Wills. “With more Wild Oats stores opening and being acquired by the chain every month, the kind of customer they’re attracting is becoming more mainstream. More mainstream customers mean more mainstream attention for brands like Livos.”
For more information, contact Greg Wills, Livos Phytochemistry of America, Inc., at (508) 477-7955, email gwills@livos.com, or visit www.livos.com.