Jacqueline Clark and Zhenya Gerson who have launched a tea line after the success of their toilet stool. Photos: Supplied.
After their stool for your stool was picked up by Gwyneth Paltrow’s 2019 Goop Christmas Gift Guide, Gerringong entrepreneur Jacqueline Clark and business partner Zhenya Gerson have now brewed up an organic herbal tea line to get things “moving” in a gentle way.
With the help of the Berry Tea Shop, their business PROPPR has launched two initial PROPPR-tea blends – “MOVE” and “SooTH” – that aim to address common gut health issues such as constipation and bloating.
It builds on the success of PROPPR’s signature product, a high-end multiple award-winning Australian designed toilet foot stool to elevate the knees and improve bowel positioning.
“Our whole philosophy is instead of investing dollars in laxatives, what if you just changed the alignment of your body when you sit on the toilet?” Jacqueline said.
“And what if you could just have a gentle tea that you enjoy? That was one of the key things for both of us – we wanted the tea to do the job, but we wanted it to taste nice.”
Zhenya was a gut health specialist and colonic hydrotherapist in Cronulla who also stocked other brands’ foot stools and teas in her clinic.
“I used to travel up there from Gerringong to see her when I was doing things like a juice cleanse,” Jacqueline said.
It was seven years ago, during a visit to the clinic’s loo, Jacqueline noticed the foot stool, sparking a conversation about its Australian founder and the business being up for sale.
“Zhenya had started selling the product as a stockist and it was moving really well, no pun intended,” she said.
“We really believed that there was, and still is, a market for a foot stool that does the job, because there is a certain height that it needs to be to get your knees high enough to unkink your colon, which literally means you don’t push crap uphill,” she said.
“That’s what we do when you sit on the western pedestal toilet.”
The pair purchased the business together and so began PROPRR.
She said several years ago, Zhenya made a decision to move back to the States, which gave them a reason to focus on the American market.
“We kind of joke that we’re running this little global enterprise from a garage in Gerringong and now in New Jersey,” she said.
“We’ve been reviewed by the New York Times’ Wirecutter as one of the top poop stools for about the last three or four years running.
“With Goop, Zhenya had been following Gwyneth Paltrow, and she’s a little bit out there and, in some ways, was kind of ahead of her time in terms of where consumers have moved with products on the market.
“She was one of those people that was willing to try stuff for health, wellness and aging well.”
Jacqueline said it was a beautiful Tasmanian oak stool that Zhenya dropped off to Goop, which made its way onto their 2019 Goop Christmas Gift Guide, before being stocked by Goop stores and pop-up shops for three years.
She said with that success, they knew the US was an area to focus on due to Australia’s limited market for a top-end product that only needed to be purchased once.
In addition, they decided to expand into PROPPR-tea not only to create repeat customers but to replace a range of teas Zhenya already loved that were no longer produced.
“She tried a number of others that were also meant to be bowel activators but some were very strong, almost a laxative effect, which is not what she wanted,” she said.
Working with a naturopath friend, she came up with a recipe using certified organic herbs for great tasting, gentle teas and then the pair worked with the Berry Tea Shop through its new warehouse to blend the perfect teas.
“MoVE is the gentle bowel activator, and has a couple of organic herb ingredients that have known properties to help activate the bowel,” she said.
Helping detox the liver and ease gut issues such as bloating, flatulence, constipation and helping reduce inflammation, she said she often resorted to it when out of routine through travelling or being in different timezones.
“Then SooTH you could take every day and I often have it at night-time,” she said.
“It’s a really nice tea to settle your belly and is really good if you’ve overindulged maybe and feeling a little bloated, or perhaps you’ve eaten something or gone hard on the carbs.”
She laughs at her own explanations and oversharing, admitting initially it had all been foreign to her to talk to strangers about such things, having a background in public relations and marketing.
“It’s really interesting being in this space, because some of the conversations you have are quite ‘wow’,” she said.
“When you get into the conversation, you find out that people have more trouble in the moving department than you realise.”
And Zhenya had heard all the jokes around poo too, she said.
PROPPR-tea, along with PROPPR Toilet Stool, is now available through the PROPPR website and wholesalers.
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