The guys at goodnature have spent hundreds of thousands ofdollars making and perfecting their resetting and toxin free pest trap since establishing in2005.
Sure, they’ve received half a million dollars from DOC’s innovation fund, and a bit of helpfrom NZTE, but that hasn’t managed to cover the cost of die tooling and other development workrequired for their innovative and patented solutions to the introduced mammals devastating ourforests, birds and other fauna.
Like many start-up businesses, the three friends who all graduated from Victoria University’sdesign school in 2004 as mature students have bootstrapped their way to developing two unique trapsthat are only just now being commercially released. The opportunity to grow a global business nowbeckons.
Along the way they’ve created a logic for trap design that has probably never been appliedbefore, “incorporating industrial design to solve a whole problem,” says Stu Barr. While allthree partners are intimately involved in the traps’ designs, by evolved definition Barr isgoodnature’s marketing/sales guy, Robbie Craig, the possum, stoat and rat behavioural specialistand Craig Bond, the technology and model making expert.
In the middle of last decade, it was clear that as well as requiring a humane way of killingpests, the Dept. of Conservation (DOC), and others, were after something that was light, durable andeasy to use. Barr makes the observation that sometimes it is school groups, or retired volunteerswho are helping defend forests and birds; and thus these requirements are even more key forthem.
An initial, but quickly discarded, trap prototype proved the feasibility of goodnature’s‘power’ for resetting traps. As far as Barr’s aware, no one else in the world has adapted theuse of CO2 cartridges as the means to operate a trap.
The jaws-oriented proof-of-concept was enough to convince DOC’s innovation fund managers of thepromise of a gas powered, completely non-electronic – and with the initial backing in 2007 inSept. 2009 the Henry 8 Rat and Stoat Trap was the first of goodnature’s products. (Richard Henryis regarded by many as New Zealand’s first conservationist).
“This worked OK,” says Barr, “but not as well as we intended.” As observed in trials, thetrap’s success depended on the rat or stoat carrying out a certain action (essentially climbing atype of ladder), but the Henry 8 couldn’t guarantee consistent behaviour.
“The reality was, we spent 80% of our time on the technology, and 20% on behaviour study,” hesays. “But, there’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. You can’t do a huge amount ofbehavioural stuff until you have the product.”
Although in hindsight, they might have attacked the production of the trap differently, thedevelopment of a first product hugely influenced the progress of goodnature’s Possum Trap. Theteam constantly thought of improvements and modifications to Henry 8, and was able to spend 80% oftheir time on behavioural observations.
As a result the Possum Trap achieved a 10 out of 10 instant humane kill – an ‘A’ classpass, humane pass and the only trap to have achieved the feat.
With the development of a fantastically effective Possum Trap and iterative changes to Henry 8,goodnature “swallowed our pride and spent a year on observational stuff for rats and stoats,”Barr says.
In doing this they understood the drivers for the rodent and mustelid and came to theconclusions:
The technology has to be as perfect as possible – since creating and modifying theinjection moulds is an expensive process
Lures are crucial (in the Henry 8, the lure was asecondary consideration)
The Henry 10 Rat and Stoat Trap is definitely new and improved. It also shares the same regulatoras the Possum Trap, as well as an in-house developed Auto Lure Dispenser. This drips a small amountof lure onto a pad over time, and will last 8-10 months depending on the temperature.
goodnature also developed a new (self) triggering device (again, non-electronic), with all thetechnology based on compressed gas.
Which means that goodnature now has two highly effective traps to sell. Its Possum Trap has beenon the market since July, and the majority of the 2000 entirely NZ-made are being used in DOC studysites. The Henry 10 will be available from March 2012, and has been part of a DOC trial from thebeginning of December.
There is also a large World Wildlife Fund sponsored project in East Taranaki to determine whethera Kakako recovery area will control possums to the level required.
At this stage the Possum Trap sells for $130 + GST each, compared to about $70 for well-knownyellow Timms Trap.
The company only sells direct at the moment, and Barr sees that the Possum Trap could sell formore, “as people are prepared to pay up to three times more for a clearly superior product,” hesays.
“At the moment we’re getting the trap known, getting it validated,” says Barr. “We haveone guy who bought 10 traps, and killed 47 possums in three and a half weeks. We packaged and sentthem. He did everything else.”
As well as conservation groups, the Possum Trap will be desirable for those areas with BovineTuberculosis, and for private property protection – orchards for example.
As far as the Possum Trap is concerned, the only market for this animal is New Zealand. Thepossum’s protected in its native Australia, and no other country has been silly enough to havereleased it into their environment.
But, almost every country in the world has their equivalent of rats and stoats. Hawaii has themongoose for example, the UK and Scandania the mink. Japan has a critically endangered rat it istrying to protect from the rat that’s familiar to us all.
“And once you cross over into pest control compared to conservation management, it’s acompletely different story,” says Barr. “The amount of rice lost to spoilage and eating by ratsin Indonesia and Asia after all the work in planting and harvesting is simply immense.”
The development of the traps’ core technology, in NZ conditions which are among the harshest inthe world, provide major opportunities. The team needs to change their approach from a conservationpath to a pest control mentality, and again new learning.
“But, if the rat trap is in a warehouse, say 50 metres from the user, the job shouldtheoretically be easier,” he says.
goodnature has patented much of its ‘suite of technology”, even though the cost of IP lawyershas been large.
Barr makes his first foray to the United States in February, to see where this market might head.“It takes at least 12 months between someone seeing the product and the sale being made,” hesays.
The job now is to engage with and look after customers, and create new, overseas markets for theRat and Stoat Trap.
Having spent the past six years bootstrapping their way to highly effective means of killingpests, the goodnature team is naturally looking forward to some paydays.
Using good design to perfect a humane pest destruction system is clearly a driving ethos for thethree directors – making some money now will be a vindication of the effort and belief that hasperfected a world first.