$300m reasons to grin
Hismile founders join nation’s top 250 rich list
Young Gold Coast entrepreneurs Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic have rocketed into the ranks of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 this year, all thanks to their toothpaste sensation Hismile.
They have turned a laborious twice-daily chore into a global sensation and made toothpaste taste better than you might ever have imagined.
Mirkovic, just 28, and Tomic, 30, are the brains behind Hismile, a business they built after finishing high school on the Gold Coast.
Just 10 years later, their product is stocked in some of the biggest retailers in the world, from Coles, Chemist Warehouse, Terry White and Woolworths in Australia to Walmart, CVS and Walgreen in the US, Sephora in Europe, and Boots in the UK.
The pair say they sold almost $300m worth of colourful toothpaste last year, with flavours including chocolate – a collaboration with the latest Willy Wonka movie – blue raspberry, cotton candy, mango sorbet, grape and vanilla.
It’s a radical departure from traditional brands that use mint flavouring to mask the product’s taste.
“You can add flavours to toothpaste, but it still tastes like toothpaste,” Tomic said.
“We all know that fundamental flavour. That’s the difference.
“Ours doesn’t taste like toothpaste. We’ve really worked hard on that.”
Sales could triple this year, say Mirkovic and Tomic, as teens in particular go wild for Hismile toothpaste and teeth whitening products.
Their mothers both worked at the Dreamworld theme park, and Tomic says family members on both sides instilled hardworking values.
“They were very on top of what their kids were doing,” he said. “You can’t do things halfarsed, you can’t be a bludger.
Whatever you do, do it well. Do what you want to do, but do it well.”
While about 40 per cent of their sales now come from the US, Tomic says the pair will always be based in Queensland.
“The Gold Coast is where we want to be,” he said.
“It’s a great place to run our business from. It is home.”
The 2024 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published today in The Australian and online at www.richest250.com.au