MERRILL Bear Pte Ltd is launching its sanitary products such as hand sanitisers, antibacterial soap and wipes into the market from today.
Company managing director Div Damodar said he wanted to start a business of his own despite coming from an already established background.
He said the inspiration to start his business was to encourage youths to become entrepreneurs and to support local manufacturers and exports.
“So we are really grateful that we have here in Fiji a very strong and intelligent youth population and there are some creative ideas that are out there,” he said.
“I created Merrill Bear and my focus was on manufacturing products that were Fijian made.
“We have also gone into distribution of mask and sanitisers but then there were logistic issues.
“Logistic issues in the sense there were only two flights, raw material was a problem, and we also had an ethanol problem that was prior to what Paradise Beverages had opened up.”
Mr Damodar said when he moved into this sector they had only two flights which were connected to Fiji and it had been a “sardine fight” for goods.
“Fiji airways couldn’t do many flights due to the restrictions and quarantine issues so that’s why the two manufacturers got very affected.”
He said the restrictions of importing raw material had affected them as a reseller.
“I guarantee you there are many manufacturers and people who need goods and all the flights will be full with that.”
He said in this process he had found a manufacturer in Nadi which could meet this demand and started manufacturing their brands which were Fijian made.
He emphasised the focus of their business was to support small, medium and large manufacturers in this trying time.
“Whatever products that locally people were manufacturing Merrill Bear was very interested in that.
“We meet the small manufacturer and we see what a product is, with all our research and experience we try and make that product a retail value.
“It is very competitive, especially with sanitisers we got two large competitors.
“And the idea is to expand and we have given another option for the consumer – price is very important for us.”
Merrill Bear will be supplying 250ml sanitiser pumps, 250 ml refills, 30 ml bottle sanitiser and sanitiser wipes to retail outlets.
