CEOs You Should Know- Hex Performance Laundry Detergent

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
I Heart Media Presents CEOs you shouldknow. I am John Dinkle, former
president and publisher of the Baltimore BusinessJournal and now founder and CEO of DNKEL
Business Development. This is iHeartRadio CEOsyou should know, and I'm here today
with Drew Westervelt, founder and CEOof Hex Performance Laundry Detergent. Welcome Drew,
and thanks for being here. Thankyou. So I thought we'd begin

(00:25):
by just get to know you alittle bit and obviously a little bit more
about the organization. So for thosewho may not be familiar, could you
tell us more about Hex Performance LaundryDetergent. Yeah, for sure. So
we're a specialty care laundry brand.What you know, We're Baltimore based and
really on the back of the successof Underarm bringing more technical synthetic fabrics to

(00:47):
the marketplace. So how we're positionedis, like I said, a special
brand, similar to like how abrand like Draft for baby or wooll Length
for delicates is position We're really focusedon properly clear meaning and building functional benefits
like anti oder technologies, wiking technologies, fabric durability benefits back into fabrics like

(01:08):
performance active where through the laundry process. So where a new emerging business.
I've been around for a little overfive years and currently expanding our distribution in
some premium retailers across the country.That's great, Yeah, congratulations, what's
your mission? Would you say?So? I think a lot of laundry

(01:33):
is very feature benefit of like alot of laundry brands are like you get
something dirty cleaned. I think atthe heart of it, the beautiful thing
about what synthetic fabrics have brought isreally empowering people to be more active,
to move to do stuff. Ithink for us is more of a lifestyle

(01:56):
play of of de commoditizing this froma la jury product to be more of
a piece of your regiment of ifyou're investing in active where being active or
or like looking and wearing certain things. We want to promote that lifestyle and
and and keep these fabrics with allof the features and benefits you bought them
when they were brand new. Sofor us, it's it's um, you

(02:19):
know, my background as being anathlete. Um, that's why I've kind
of somehow found my way into thislaundry business and seeing the growth of synthetics.
So it's really it for us aboutjust empowering people to be active.
Yeah, that's great. And whenyou think about performance where active where the
market, you know, it's kindof like bigger than you think it is.
I mean some people would think ofokay, professional sports like lacrosse and

(02:44):
football and soccer and things like that, that's all great and and and a
perfect fit. But then you thinkabout all the performance clothing on the outdoors
side, Let's just say for likefishing and hunting to you know, kayaking,
to like all different I mean thereare there are you know, hundreds
of like outdoor activities that use performancewhere these days and and people spend a

(03:07):
lot of money on that, onthat stuff. And too, I think
to your point, you know,having something that will take care of that
that garment is is is a goodniche. Yeah. I think five ten
years ago, synthetic fabrics were thoughtabout as or performance fabrics where things we

(03:29):
wear to the gym. Yeah.I think the reality is there's a lot
of awesome benefits with synthetics, whetherhow they feel, they breathe, they
wick, they're comfortable, they lookgreat. I think what's exciting for us
is I think it's a little lessniche now, right, yea. Performance
fabrics are, yes, things youwear the gym, but this whole athleisure
boom of of you wear it justto feel good where socially, I mean

(03:52):
a lot of work garments are orhigh fashion is now synthetic based. And
um, that's well, that's anaddition to you know, sheets or synthetic
towels are synthetic now. Pet productsare synthetic now, baby fabrics or synthetic
now. It's it's part of ourentire wardrobe. I just don't think we
realize. Yeah, no, i'you're totally right on that because I do
a lot of like outdoor activities flyfishing and kayaking, stuff like that.

(04:15):
And if you were looking at younow, like I have an orb of
a shirt on, you know,like but to your point, yeah,
people are starting really to kind ofwear that out because it's comfortable, it
feels good to breeze. That's that'spretty How would you how what analogy would
you use? I know you hadsaid in a previous conversation I had heard
that, you know, you're nottrying to you know, tell people to

(04:35):
you know, replace you know,a brand name. Um, talk about
that a little bit in the analogythat you would use there. Yeah,
so I'll use it, and I'lluse a couple of analogies. But the
first is, let's move away fromlaundry into household cleanings. There isn't one
product we used to clean all servicesin our household right. There are granite

(04:57):
cleaners, uh, steamless steel cleanerswould clean, tile cleaners, toilet cleaners,
tile cleaners. There's all these differentproducts because they're different surfaces, they
need different technologies to work. Transitioningto laundry is you know, for the
most part, we've told been toldthat laundry's laundry. You throw your stuff
in the Washington, you put yourdetergent in work. So well, that

(05:18):
did work when of our laundry wasnatural fibers like cottons or wolves. And
what we've kind of looked at issay, synthetics are not niche. So
in the US, the US syntheticperformance fabric athletes your categories one hundred and

(05:40):
fifty billion. Laundry category in theUS is ten billion. So what we've
done is said, there's this tenbillion dollar laundry category. Everyone does laundry,
but we've been told you just pickthe one you like or the fragrance
you like, and you use thaton everything. But what's before hex was
here, what proved that specialty caresand opportunities. There are brands like Draft

(06:00):
that are for baby fabric. Thereare brands like wool Like that are for
delicates or wolves that you use init separately from your mainstream detergent for that
wash load. So we know thereis behavior of consumers segmenting their various fabric
types, colors, etc. Butwe're positioned towards is much more synonymous with

(06:20):
wool Like and Draft, but forsynthetic fabric. So when you wash your
under armor, when you wash yourLululem and your Nike year Adidas, your
athletes, or your sheets, yourtowels that are synthetic, you're already segmenting
it. Use the right cleaning productfor that wash load. So we're not
asking you to stop buying what youwhat you normally use for your normal laundry

(06:41):
because it works. Yeah, butwe do know consumers are confused, right,
Like I grew up in Baltimore,played lacrosse at NBC and then professionally
after. I still have cotton ChampionT shirts practice shirts from college, but
I don't have any synthetics like threwout because I couldn't clean them. Yeah,
So that's where we come in andsay, you know, we know

(07:04):
synthetics are a big piece of yourwardrobe. We know they're expensive, and
you want you buy them because theyhave cool benefits. They feel good,
they stretch, they wick, they'rebuilding antiodor tech into them. We're just
saying, use our detergents to buildall those benefits right back in through the
laundry machine and get longevity and performanceand value out of that piece of your

(07:27):
wardrobe. Thank God, God,thank you. I appreciate you explaining to
that. It's awesome. So also, um, you have mentioned a few
minutes ago they've been around for aboutfive years and what made you want a
headquarter in Maryland? So you know, I grew up in Maryland. Also,
I went to high school at JohnCarroll. I went to college at
UNBC, and then I played tenyears in professional Carls in the MLL and

(07:51):
the Indoor Historical Outdoor League and indoorLegal into the US team. So what's
interesting is I love Maryland. Icurrently live in Saverna Park, UM,
but for ten years I was Iwas traveling every weekend to play a lacrosse
game. So Baltimore has always beenhome. Um, you know, and
ironically, when I started the business, it wasn't a laundry business. It

(08:11):
was been a business to clean sportsvenues and it was a product that worked
really well on turf, and Imade the connection that turf is no different
than synthetic fabric. So we pivotedto laundry. And actually Baltimore has a
long history of cleaning brands being hereand obviously a very large activeware brand an

(08:33):
under Armor here. That's it's reallypaved away for the opportunity for us to
build a brand in the cleaning space. Got it, that's me. That's
great. Thanks thanks for going overthat. Um So, I wanted to
ask you to Um, I waslooking at your website. You have a
partnership with sculpt Society. Talked aboutthat a little bit. Yeah, so
I think, um, you know, like I mentioned with the you know,

(08:56):
yes active where as warrenant of thegym, yes, it's an a
leasure space. I think, youknow, a big opportunity for our brand
is the is the laundry category isn'tnecessarily shocked thinking there's going to be something
new, So partnerships with the SCALPSociety where they're putting content out about health
and wellness type of topics are workingout. Um, we know those people

(09:20):
consuming that content are largely wearing activewhere so it's an interesting opportunity for us
to connect the dots of hey,we make a product for you for what
you wear. So we're constantly tryingto find authentic ways to find third party
advocacy to say, hey, youknow, try something new for this fabric
type and and you're going to getvalue and longevity out of it. Got

(09:43):
it great? Thank you, appreciateyou that, UM, And where can
consumers get you know, Hex products? And you know where do you see
the growth opportunity over the next severalyears. Yeah, So our current distribution
and our real opportunity in twenty threeand twenty four in to twenty five is

(10:03):
to expand our presence in retail ande commerce more nationally. So UM,
you know our nationally. We're availablethrough our websitehat Performance dot com. We're
available on Amazon dot com. UM, we do have regional and on our
website is a store locator. Wedo have regional distribution and target we have
we've just earned regional distribution in Walmart, which is exciting. We work with

(10:24):
the Northeast region, not fifty twoweeks a year, but in rotation and
costcos in the Northeast, we're inall Wegmans stores, all Myers stores,
We're in select exporting good stores.So that's kind of our current distribution.
What's interesting though, is you know, when you asked about what our goals

(10:46):
are are really to expand nationally inTarget and Walmart. UM. You know,
the category is big in the US. It's about a ten billion dollar
category for household laundry, but upwardsof fifty percent of that is acquired Target,
Walmart, cost on Amazon. Sowe have a big focus on on
growing those partnerships more nationally, aswell as continuing to learn and when in

(11:09):
grocers like Wagmans and Meyers, sowe can expand in the grocery chain moving
forward as well. So that's kindof how we think about grows forwards.
Okay, yeah, I imagine thatUM involves a lot of investment too,
because you're going national with these hugeretailers. UM. That's that's a that's
a that's a that's a big liftUM, And I imagine a lot of

(11:33):
investment, a lot of teamwork,collaboration and um, so congratulations and M
get good luck with that. Appreciatethat. Yeah. Um, so we
talk about too. Um. Youknow, I know that you you mentioned
that you do online sales. Whatis the ratio of like on a online
the retails that definitely more on theretail side or do you are you?

(11:54):
Um? I thought that you havea kind of a whole fale side of
things too. Is that most ofthe online talk? Could you talk about
that a little bit? Yeah,Actually, historically about half of our sales
have come through e commerce, whichis which is which is rare. The
reason for that is, you know, we have regional distribution in Target and
Walmart and Chain why distribution and Wagman'sand Meyer, um and obviously nationally and

(12:20):
Amazon. So really that that ratioof online sales to brick and mortar retail
sales will swing much more towards theretail side of things because our brick and
mortar distribution continues to expand. SoI mean nationally the vast majority of laundry
is purchased in store. Yeah.Um, but as you know, for

(12:41):
us to to swing that ratio,which will happen organically is just a function
of growing our distribution U incrementally towhere we have it today. Got thanks
thanks for sharing that. UM.All right, just switching gears a little
bit. You know, I loveto talk about leadership on the show,
and UM wanted to ask you,you know, how would you describe your

(13:03):
leadership style? UM. I makea lot of comparisons to athletics. Um.
Most of our team has an athleticbackground, if not all. UM,
So, I mean, my leadershipstyle is buying great people that want
to want to think and act likean operator themselves. So there's a ton

(13:26):
of trust. And we do havea relatively small team, but they're all
operators in their own right, UM, in the function and their roles that
they have in the business. Soyou know, for me, it's it's
very it's very team oriented, it'svery collaborative, it's very trusting, and
you know, I have marketers,I have people in operations, people in

(13:46):
finance that are significantly smarter than mein those respective channels. So I have
a lot of trust in them.And it's like I would I would.
I wouldn't say in a negative way, but it's more of a team mentality,
A locker room mentality of of ofdo your job and I trust the
decisions you make are right and ifif we need to collaborate, let's do

(14:07):
that. Yeah, that's great,thanks for sharing that. And yeah,
with the general through out of thekind of pandemic behind us and it's obviously
we're going to live with that therest of our days. But um,
what what did you learn about managingand kind of leading through that time?
You Even today everyone is very remote. Yeah, I think with you know,

(14:31):
I think we're all on more zoomsor Google calls and we'd we'd like
to be I think in the lastsix months it's gotten more in person.
I think from an internal perspective,the remote working environment hasn't been a challenge.
I mean, I like being withpeople, but I also think we've
been really efficient and productive dealing withwith what we had to deal with it.

(14:54):
I think the challenge has been onthe customer side. So historically,
when you're meeting with a target ora Walmart or a Wagments, you're in
person creating a relationship with that.And in the last three years it's been
surely um virtual, which as aas a new emerging brand, I think

(15:15):
it's been it's created some challenges andnot necessarily earning the distribution or or or
having the right conversations, just nothaving that personal interaction. Yeah, that's
been something we've had to figure outhow to create relationships digitally that you know
when you prefer to do it inperson. Yeah. That and that's that's

(15:37):
man. That's I think a lotof companies are feeling the same way,
and I know things are opening upa little bit. But to your point,
you know, as a as astartup, five years and three of
that, here's it's you know beenyou know, this kind of virtual environment,
it is, as you know,it's so important to build those deep
relationships with with those folks. ButI guess moving forward, the positive side

(16:02):
is, you know things are openingup and you kind of can get back
into that and hopefully make up forground. But it sounds like you've got
great partnerships already established even though itwas virtual. So that's that's really good.
I think the good news is it'sstarting to get back to a little
bit of normal of of of interactingyou know, in person UM and I

(16:23):
think the benefit of that is amore open mind and how they think about
UM new innovation and how they thinkabout trying new brands or how they think
about trends in the category. So, I mean, I think from my
perspective, were we were effective indealing with what we had to deal with.
But yeah, I think there isan opportunity now for us to have

(16:47):
more collaborative discussions with partners to um, you know, hopefully move a little
faster and that we grow the business. Yeah, definitely. How did you
talk about your culture a little bitand you know, maintaining that through this
kind of virtual hybrid environment. Howare you you know, getting people to

(17:07):
work collaboratively and together and how's thehow's the culture shift happened with with the
Hex performance. I mean, Ithink the luxury I have is we're a
relatively small team and most of theteam UM I had a relationship prior to

(17:29):
working together at Hex, So Ithink, um, you know, there
there's a real relationship with everyone heremore so than just we work together.
So um, Like I said,I think a lot of our of my
partners, my team UM is collaborative. They they're they're all you know,
active in their own right. SoI think it's what we're doing is is

(17:52):
part of their lifestyle anyway. UMSo, I think from a culture perspective,
one way enjoy each other and touh, we got a lot of
trust in each other. Yeah,need okay, thank you, appreciate sharing
that. Um So, what getstoo excited about the future of Hex Performance
laundry detergent. I think what Ilove about what we're doing is, um,

(18:15):
I think there's there's there's two thingswe're focused on, which is different.
I think a lot of brands historicallywho have entered laundry or trying to
steal sales from another brand. Yeah. I think what's different about and I
really love the how we're positioned iswe're not asking consumers to switch. We're
asking just to use the right productfor a right washload. So the benefit

(18:37):
of that is, you know,consumers buy us in addition to another laundry
detergent. Um. So, whatthat does is I'm able to meet with
vendors or retailers and say, hey, I'm here to grow your category,
not steal share from someone else.And then on the on the shopping side,
I'm able to tell to communicate I'mhere to benefit your consumer as well

(18:57):
for a solution, um for apain point in the launch room. So
for me, it's I feel likeI'm serving both the growth of the category
and solutions to consumers, and indirectlythat's a good thing for Hex. Yeah,
and it sounds like, you know, you've got a big opportunity.

(19:18):
I guess one the like the educationside, right, educating consumers to educating
retailers, educating uh, competitors,you know that kind of thing that it
sounds like you're really positioned very verywell, and it's just really a matter
of getting it out there and gettingyou know, that your story out there
and you know why it's important toyou know, use text performance for the

(19:41):
longevity of your your active work.I mean, I think what's cool about
the brand and the products. Wehave some really cool chemistry and technology that
works. I think, um,uh, well, what we're really trying
to do is just and you mentionedit is education is the key to our

(20:02):
success. Is you know, Idon't think I think we are habitually thought
that laundry is laundry. We usea laundry at Churgeon. I think,
um, what what we're doing isis really trying to just benefit the investment
consumers have made in certain performance textiles. So that continues to perform and they

(20:23):
get value and longevity at them.So you know, I feel like we're
we're we're serving others and that indirectlyserves ourselves. Got it? Thank you
apprecially sharing that and so you know, kind of conversely, what keeps up
at night, Uh, my kids, UM got a four year old,

(20:51):
of three year old and one yearold sons. Um. I think what
keeps me up at night is isis you know, I think we're all
competitive here and we always want tobe moving quicker and faster. So you
know, being a small team,I think we're running as hard as we
can. But what keeps me upat night is is the unknown. Right,

(21:14):
We're in a competitive space. We'retrying to build a new a new
subset in the category of active workcare and you know there's risk in that.
So um, but I think havinga team that that is as you
know, first and foremost athletes andcompetitive, that that's a that's a challenge
we welcome, but it doesn't comewithout stress and exciting. Yeah. Absolutely,

(21:37):
absolutely. Well, to wrap thingsup, is there anything else you'd
like our listeners should know about youand Hex performance laundry detergent, No,
I mean, I appreciate the opportunityto have this conversation. And you know,
if if people are hearing this andand skeptical, I encourage you to
reach out because I'm going to seeit and I will definitely respond. Yeah,

(22:00):
and also tell us how to findmore information about Hex Performance Lauduty.
Yes, So if you our websiteshex performance dot com, you can you
can email us directly through there orany of our social channels on Instagram or
Facebook or are great vehicles to eitherget more education about the brand or communicate
directly with myself and the team onquestions or um any literally any questions you

(22:22):
may have. But but what Iask is is you know what what's the
harmon trying something new? I'm confidentto have a good experience. Yeah that's
great. Well, well, thankyou so much. It was great,
uh talking to a gate learning moreabout you and UM Hex Performance Laundual detergent
Um. Congratulations on your success ofbar Thank you for being in Maryland and

(22:44):
being a growth business in Maryland.We appreciate that and it was really good
talking with you. Thank you.This has been iheartmedias CEOs you should know