Business loves a trier, and Connacht Rugby legend Michael Swift (pictured) has scored a few of them during a successful career as one of the club’s most-capped players. Having hung up his boots in 2015, Swift is now trying his hand in the business world, with the imminent launch of Frankman, a range of men’s hair products.

Swift cut his teeth in entrepreneurship in 2013, as he contemplated life after rugby. He founded Powder Pocket, which dispatched packages of cosmetics to subscribers every month. The venture was a modest success but ran into a larger competitor, prompting Swift to sell the business and start again.

With Frankman, Swift is hoping to tap into the growing market for male grooming products with his no-nonsense, boldly branded range. “The male grooming market is extremely fragmented, and for the consumer there are two options,” he says. 

“At one end of the scale are mass market brands like Brylcreem and VO5 that are functional and inexpensive. At the other end of the spectrum are prestige salon brands, sold at a high price point. In the middle sit single product niche brands with relatively low volumes. Frankman’s space is reassuringly more expensive than the mass market brands, yet still accessible and convenient.”

Michael Swift started playing rugby in 1995 and his first professional club was Richmond, which he joined at 19 while studying at Loughborough University. When Richmond was bundled into London Irish in 1999, Swift played briefly for Leeds Tykes, before joining Galwegians in June 2000.

In Association with

In 2001, the Celtic League was formed and Swift was a Connacht regular. He played mostly in the second row, from the 2001/02 season until his 269th and final Connacht appearance against Ospreys in May 2015. That was a year before Connacht beat Leinster in the Pro12 final, Connacht’s first major trophy.

Retirement Options

Swift says that rugby’s attrition levels had him mulling entrepreneurial career options when he hit his 30s. “As the years progressed, good friends of mine were having to retire early through injury. It’s not something you like to think about, but in the course of a season on average two players in the team are going to have to retire.

“Around 2013, while looking at business opportunities and trends, I saw that two women in the US had launched an online beauty box business. The model just made sense – you source cosmetic samples for free and then charge women every month for them. That seemed to me to be a good proposition!”

With Powder Pocket, Swift charged customers €15 per month for a gift-wrapped box of five cosmetic products. It was a relatively new concept in Ireland and UK-based Glossybox was the only other player of note. Swift says the business got off to a good start, and quickly racked up 900 monthly subscribers. 

He recalls: “Once a month I had half the Connacht team packing boxes and tying ribbons for my customers. However, combining the business with playing rugby was difficult in terms of the time commitment. As well as that, Glossy Box ramped up their Irish penetration on the back of our success, and I sold the business in 2014.”

Lean Partnership

Swift’s next business idea germinated among his fellow athletes. “I was 37 when I retired and over the years I could see the evolution in men’s grooming habits in our changing room. Ten years ago, just using moisturiser was not seen as a very manly thing, but I was noticing the increasing time it was taking guys to get out of the dressing room after matches.”

Helped by his wife, Gill, who had been working in L’Oreal, Swift began exploring the idea of developing a men’s haircare range. He kept research costs down through some clever outsourcing – a partnership with UCD’s Smurfit Business School. 

“The MBA programme there is crying out for real-life case studies,” says Swift. “We worked with five MBA students, who helped us keep the company lean and develop our marketing approach. We also used Enterprise Ireland’s market research centre, which is underutilised by entrepreneurs. It gives you access to Gartner and Euromonitor reports, as well as trends insights in Ireland and UK.”

Swift’s research told him that men wanted a clearly defined range of hair products aimed at them. Frankman Grooming’s five initial products (pictured above) include a pomade, pots of clay/wax and hair spray. “I took the ideas to a UK manufacturer initially and there were a few iterations in product development. I decided against UK manufacturing because of the high unit costs and potential problems with Brexit.”

Swift’s search for a manufacturing partners took him across Europe and into Asia until eventually he found what he was looking for in his Connacht back-yard — Cosmetic Creations in Claremorris. “We’re running short batch order for our launch in May and we’re grateful to Cosmetic Creations for allowing us to do that. We need to get out of the blocks and generate some cashflow.”

Blocky And Bright

For Frankman’s branding, Swift worked with design agency Neworld Associates in Dublin. The hair products are packaged in black, with blocky fonts in bright colours. “The agency produced a look and tone that will hopefully connect and resonate with our bullseye male – frank and to the point,” Swift explains.

“Guys told us that when looking at a grooming product they want to know the product type, hold and finish in three seconds. This gave rise to our colour-coded, bullet gauge system that clearly displays this.”

Swift’s sales strategy is to get his products into pharmacies and barber shops before developing an online store. He is also planning to incorporate a Powder Pocket type setup – minus the ribbons – where customers can order products through the website for regular delivery.

“The bricks-and-mortar approach is important for us because guys won’t buy products online unless they’ve tried them first,” says Swift. “I also want to target sports stores and gyms, as I think the products complement what they offer.”

Raising funds for Frankman has been an ongoing challenge, Swift concedes. Frankman Grooming Co Ltd was approved for the EIIS equity investment scheme in 2016 and Swift’s wife, Gillian Blake, availed of the incentive to invest €30,000. 

Swift is also hoping to raise funds through Spark Crowdfunding, an Irish startup modelled on Crowdcube in the UK. “Ireland is very tech-focused, so bringing an FMCG product to market is challenging,” Swift observes. “With investors, you’d prefer not to have someone just chuck money at you and wait for monthly updates. We want to get people on board who have industry knowledge in bringing FMCG products to market.”

New Frontiers

Swift completed Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers programme, which mentors entrepreneurs. He also sourced funding from South Dublin LEO and is hoping to secure funding from Enterprise Ireland in the coming months. Tempting angel investors is becoming more difficult due to their preference to form clusters and syndicates, Swift argues. 

“When investors group together, there’s less scope for individual preferences – the syndicate lead will tend to push certain investment opportunities, such as tech, more than others. Also, there’s less general knowledge among investors of the FMCG sector, which narrows the pool of potential investors and makes our job more difficult.” 

Another problem facing Swift is the cost of hiring staff. He suggests that the government should provide more relief to startups to offset initial employment costs. “It’s hard enough when you’re not paying yourself very much. A relief scheme related to hiring would be good.”

Frankman Grooming is operated from a hot desk in the Synergy Centre in IT Tallaght, and from Swift’s home in Terenure. Swift ditched an early idea to find a warehouse in which to locate and run his company. Instead he is working with a fulfilment provider near Dublin Airport to store and dispatch the products. 

Swift had hoped to launch Frankman late last year and the product launch timetable is still fluid, as Swift grapples with the reality of business development. “I thought I knew what a business plan was, but it has to be a lot more than a five-page effort,” he muses. “Investors will look in every nook and cranny and examine every number.

“When you’re selling a product you have to build your distribution channel. That takes a long time — longer than I anticipated. We are working with a smaller company on the pharmacy side and with a wholesaler to service the barber shops. It’s all about building relationships, which takes time.

“I’ve found that to get a solid business position, it will always take longer and cost more than you planned. Whoever tells you otherwise either hasn’t experienced it first-hand or is lying.”