The Supply Side: Mom gets sustainable mop pad on Wal-Mart shelves

Tanya Lewis, a work-from-home mom in Palm Harbor, Fla., put her ingenuity to work around eight years ago when she became obsessed with a more sustainable way to clean the floors upon which her toddler constantly crawled.

“I had a Swiffer wet jet mop and loved it, but when I went through an entire box of cleaning pads that first week I knew there had to be a better, more sustainable solution. That’s when I began to look for a greener cleaning pad online, one that could be washed and reused instead of clogging landfills with disposable alternatives. In 2007, there was no such thing, so I set out to create one,” Lewis told The City Wire.

She has patented her design which marries the cleaning traits of microfiber with the absorbency of shammy cloth layered beneath the pad’s surface. Lewis saw no need to recreate the wheel and fashioned her pad so that it easily straps to Swiffer and most other brands including the basic sponge mop. Because it was a sustainable, more eco-friendly solution she named it the Green Glider and has since trademarked that brand.

BEFORE SELLING TO WAL-MART
Lewis, a graphic design freelancer by trade, said when her friends and family started asking her to make them a mop pad she decided to roll the dice and test the market for a greener floor cleaning solution. 

Working with CEO Space International, an entrepreneurial alliance, Lewis said she was able to locate two manufacturers in China and ultimately chose one of them for the product she’s now marketing.

“It’s been three years of double-time work to get this product in front of brick and mortar retailers like Wal-Mart, Kroger, Lowe’s and Target as well as others. We sold on QVC and did very well selling out in eight minutes on our first airing. We aired 11 other times and sold well in the channel, but when I had an opportunity to pitch to Wal-Mart I couldn’t turn that down,” Lewis said.

Given her woman-owned status, Lewis said she completed the rigorous Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) certification and got a meeting with a Wal-Mart buyer through the retailer’s supplier diversification program in January 2014. 

By the time Lewis had her first buyer meeting at Wal-Mart she had already sold more than $250,000 in mop pads on QVC in the preceding year. Lewis admits during this time she was still figuring out the business and changed manufactures to get the quality standard she wanted.

BUYER MEETING
Lewis brought her invention to Bentonville and met with her buyer on the premise that there is no other sustainable alternative in the market today that can help consumers who want cleaner floors save money and worry less about contributing to landfills.

“I showed Wal-Mart all the homemade inventions out-there on websites that consumers had concocted like strapping diapers, tube socks and other items to the mop head, instead of buying expensive, disposable mop pads. I told Wal-Mart this is a market craving a solution that they didn’t offer, but could, if they sold Green Glider,” Lewis said.

She spent the next nine months getting ready to do business with Wal-Mart, securing her WBENC certification and unleashing inventory warehoused by QVC so that when Wal-Mart called she would have the inventory to ship.

Lewis said her second Wal-Mart meeting took place in September. After repackaging the inventory released by QVC, Lewis made her first shipment to Wal-Mart Stores in February.  

“We got into nearly 300 stores in 49 states and I am in all 42 distribution centers, which sets me up for a bigger rollout if the product does well. Now we just have to let folks know Green Glider is available at Wal-Mart for $9.98, which is about $3 less than if they buy from our direct website or on Amazon.com,” Lewis said.

For Lewis getting into Wal-Mart has been a surreal experience, and she has found her buyer and his team to be nothing but helpful.

“I told my buyer there is not a ‘Plan B’ on my agenda so I am doing everything I can to make Green Glider a success. It looks to me like Wal-Mart also works hard to help small startups like Green Glider succeed where they can,” Lewis said.

SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
Lewis said she brought on early angel investors to help her initial startup who continue to be supportive in all endeavors. Lewis said the company is making money but it’s all going back into more product and what will be marketing costs as Green Glider reaches more retail shelves in the coming months.

While she’s focused on building out the Green Glider brand, Lewis said she has 10 other inventions sitting on the back burner – some within the same category as well as children’s products and other solutions for women.

“We will soon have a 17 inch mop pad with the same patented technology that works atop the larger Swiffer, Libman, and Rubbermaid mops. There are other Green Glider products in the planning stages as well,” she said.

Lewis said she is working with mentors who continue to provide guidance in everything from marketing to day-to-day consulting on various operational metrics.

“Lionshark Marketing and Management has been hugely instrumental in helping me build my company. Consultants Ben Rizzo, and Mike Nole provide business management to entrepreneurs like myself and Bryan McGuire of Lionshark is also my chief financial officer,” she said.

Lewis also said Dwight Sinclair of the Sinclair Group has been her right arm in helping get the Green Glider in front of more retail buyers. One area Lewis is passionate about is getting to a place where she too can mentor others.

“It’s so important to learn, earn and return, which is the motto of CEO Space and one I too, have adopted,” Lewis said.

NOTABLE CHALLENGES
Lewis admits there have been challenges along the journey to the shelf, but she’s optimistic the years she’s devoted will pay dividends. She said the days can be long for a single mom but Lewis reiterates “there is no Plan B.”

One notable challenge for Lewis is figuring out the best way to market Green Glider that is just one item sitting obscurely on an aisle covered with big brand names controlled by corporate giant Proctor & Gamble.

“Right now when you are only in 300 stores it can be hard to market, especially when those stores are spread out coast to coast. We are using social media at this point to target consumers looking for sustainable mopping solutions. We feel good that there are some 50 million users of Swiffer and other spray jet mop systems and the fact that our product easily attaches to them is a huge potential market for Green Glider,” Lewis said.

Lewis said while her product is sustainable, it is manufactured in China and there is the additional transport time where shipments are concerned.

“I just want consumers to know there is a $9.98 alternative to costly disposable mop pads and it’s finally on the shelf at some 300 Wal-Mart stores and hopefully coming to more soon,” Lewis said.