To the shelves

Watsons Malaysia managing director Kulvinder Birring (left) and Loh flanking Chin, who represented the grand winner Redquay Trading.

WATSONS has announced the top three winners of its Watsons Innovation Day competition, a platform for innovative companies to have their products selected and made available at Watsons stores nationwide and on its online store.

“The response we received was encouraging and above our expectation,” says Caryn Loh, Watsons Malaysia general manager of trading.

“In a short span of time, we managed to gather promising entrepreneurs and their proposed products which are aligned with Watsons Innovation Day objective.”

The inaugural competition saw Redquay Trading coming out on top for its products called OraPup and Steripod. Redquay Trading will receive RM500,000’s worth of advertising and promotion package from Watsons to promote the products.

“The team was excited to know about Watsons Innovation Day, and it was an ideal platform to introduce both OraPup, a pet breath freshener, and Steripod, a toothbrush clip and tongue-cleaner with an active ingredient that releases vapour and kills bacteria in the toothbrush and tongue-cleaner,” says Monique Chin, marketing executive of Redquay Trading.

“To win this is unbelievable but we are confident that with our innovative products, we can make people happy,” she adds.

The two runners-up titles were awarded to Cason Trading and Delfi Marketing, with each receiving RM250,000’s worth of advertising and promotion package from Watsons.

Cason, which submitted a deodorant cream, was surprised to finish in the top three.

“Winning this prize was unexpected because the team was quite sceptical about the product at first, but we were amazed at the effectiveness after the testing period. We hope QB Medicinal Deodorant Cream will help more people who have issues with body odour,” says Rosamond Ti, assistant marketing manager of Cason Trading.

Shann Bong, product executive at Delfi Marketing, says the company was confident about its blister prevention spray.

“Our Dermal Therapy Blistop is unique because there are no similar products in the market at the moment. During the judging round, we knew the product offering would excite the judging panel.

“And the feedback given was truly encouraging. So winning today is definitely a good boost, especially when we have the opportunity to work with Asia’s leading retailer.”

Participating entries were judged based on the product idea and market needs, the market size and potential customers and product competitive advantage.

“It was a keen competition amongst the finalists. And these three winners were chosen based on product innovation and uniqueness. With the good response, we would like to continue this initiative next year to search for more potential products so we are able to provide variety to Watsons customers,” adds Loh.

All winning products will be made available in Watsons stores nationwide within the first quarter of 2016.