RockRoll customers bummed
Buyers waiting for delivery of innovative eco-products invented by a Nelson man have been told the enterprise has collapsed.
Nelson man Mohi Healey attracted national attention earlier this year when he introduced his concept of an ecofriendly, stone-based alternative to traditional toilet paper, which dissolved completely within 60 seconds of flushing.
Healey raised more than $70,000 in crowdfunding in four weeks from 910 backers, who are now out of pocket.
Several people contacted Stuff this week after they did not hear back from Healey in the past three weeks after they asked about delivery of their orders. Numerous attempts by Stuff to contact him have gone unanswered.
In an email sent to purchasers yesterday, Healey announced that the RockRoll business was no more.
‘‘In a nutshell, to answer your questions of where the RockRoll project is currently at – the entire operation is teetering on the brink of complete failure,’’ he wrote.
‘‘When I prototyped the material that would become RockRoll toilet paper, I made the mistake of assuming that if I had made the prototype sheets, I could easily expand the method into a commercial scale of production.’’
Healey cited a combination of mental health issues, business inexperience, and being overwhelmed by the time and resources required as factors in the failure.
A deckhand on the Sanfordowned deep sea factory trawler San Enterprise at the time, Healey left his job to focus solely on the RockRoll vision.
‘‘Demand far exceeded the supply ability, I had a death in the family, I was juggling working 18 hours a day developing . . . two new products on top of raising a one-year-old as a solo parent, and the tableting machinery was taken far longer than expected to arrive and get set up, and I collapsed.’’
Healy said he realised he was not able to build a machine locally to make the product, so he invested a ‘‘mass proportion’’ of the crowdfunding money with a Chinese manufacturer.
He said a key stakeholder who had agreed to supply the calcium carbonate also backed out before he had secured a supply agreement.
Mohi launched a follow-up product – a dishwashing tablet called Ecotab – in mid-August.
This is still available.
Healy said Ecotab was his ‘‘eureka moment’’ of trying to redeem the loses he had incurred.
He said he had invested the ‘‘remaining money I had left, from two years of personal savings, into the material, packaging, equipment and marketing of Ecotabs’’.
Healey said he would now rely on customer feedback to make decisions on how to proceed with any refunds, but was willing to repay as much of the full $72,000 within 24 months.
One Auckland customer, who did not want to be named, bought both products, starting with RockRoll in June.
‘‘I’m a real greenie at heart – and I loved to support that young guy making his way in the world and saving it at the same time,’’ she said.
Following the announcement that RockRoll had ceased, her reaction was measured.
‘‘My heart goes out to the guy – but good on him for trying.’’
Auckland customer Brooke Hutchings said she had been waiting since August 16 for her Ecotab product to arrive. An email came about the shipping on August 23, but there had been complete silence since then, she said.
‘‘I’ve got my own start-up business, so I know it can be hard. You can promise the world, but sometimes it doesn’t happen,’’ she said.
Hutchings said that while the situation was unfortunate for Healey, she was disappointed that so many people had been let down.
RockRoll was incorporated under the NZ Companies register on August 5, with Healey listed as the sole director.