© SALTHERAPY

Today, we introduce you to a company named salTherapy, which produces a solid alternative to toothpaste. Let’s hear from company president Ho Jae-hyun(호재현). 

The name salTherapy is a combination of salt and therapy. It contains the company’s hope to provide healthy and convenient products using safe ingredients including salt. It is a one-person company that was established in January 2017. 

According to Statistics Korea, 4.8 million businesses or nearly 80 percent of companies in Korea consisted of just one person in 2017. With the market becoming increasingly volatile in the slowing economy, more and more people are choosing to do business alone to better cope with the ever-changing market environment and still nurture their dreams. 

With the same purpose in mind, Mr. Ho started his own business. Before that, he worked at the Korean branch of Japanese tech giant Softbank. While many people around him dissuaded him from quitting the stable job, he was confident about his future because he had a reliable role model. 

My father has been running a salt company for 40 years. His company collects salt from salt pits before processing and distributing it. My company, salTherapy, also uses salt. While my father produces salt for cooking, I use it to make daily necessities that would be good for health. 

My father wasn’t a specialist when he set up a small company alone. But watching what he has done for all those years, I became confident that I can also do well on my own, even though I had nothing. 

Ho’s father, Ho Byung-yong, is the CEO of Youngjin Green Food that has produced and supplied edible salt since 1978. Having witnessed his father’s dedication to salt since childhood, Ho Jae-hyun cherished his dream and inherited his father’s enthusiasm about salt in his own way. The result was solid toothpaste made from good- quality bamboo salt produced by his father. 

It is well known that salt is good for oral health, and I thought I could make salt-based toothpaste. I wanted to take out preservatives to make safer and healthier toothpaste. For that purpose, however, I had to remove water. I floated an idea of a solid version of toothpaste without water. 

At first, I thought about powder-type toothpaste but it would be inconvenient to use. Again, I wondered what it would be like if the powder forms a hard mass. There was no such product in Korea at the time and I found a few similar products abroad. Obviously, the foreign manufacturers had an idea similar to mine. 

After extensive research and hard work, Ho was able to develop solid toothpaste based on bamboo salt. 

He wanted the new product to be completely free of controversial chemicals including chemical surfactant. He considered adding natural ingredients like bamboo salt, propolis and xylitol instead to finally develop solid toothpaste without water and no preservatives. It is also called portable toothpaste or tablet toothpaste for traveling. 

salTherapy’s solid toothpaste passed the hazardous component test conducted by the KOTITI Testing and Research Institute, a product certification institute designated by the Korea Accreditation System. In the test, 12 harmful ingredients were not detected in the product. 

But it was far from easy to make this type of toothpaste. When Mr. Ho began to develop the new product in 2017, chewing toothpaste was rare in Korea as it was common for people to squeeze the toothpaste tube. As expected, it was difficult to find a factory producing solid toothpaste. In another challenging part, Ho had to conduct tests over and over again to figure out an optimal amount of bamboo salt needed for enough bubbles in the mouth and oral health. 

The new product was released in the market at last. But in the early stage, very few people wanted it. 

In June 2017, I produced 10-thousand bottles of solid toothpaste, with each bottle containing 60 tablets. In the beginning, sales were miserable. On some days, I couldn’t even sell a single bottle. The stock was piling up, and I was depressed. At the time, most people didn’t even know the term, solid toothpaste. No one entered the phrase in the search window on the Internet and it wasn’t exposed to the public easily. So I tried a lot to promote the term itself. 

In September that year, a crowdfunding platform known as kakaomakers contacted me. I agreed to provide my products on the platform for two weeks and I posted 8,000 bottles at the start. To my surprise, they were sold out in just ten days. I was able to dispose of all my stock and produce more. 

© SALTHERAPY

As Mr. Ho just explained, he grabbed the chance to introduce his chewing toothpaste called “ToothTab” on a crowdfunding platform. To use this new toothpaste, you first put a piece of ToothTab in your mouth. It looks like a tablet. Next, you chew it properly until it creates bubbles, and clean your teeth with a toothbrush. You may skip the brushing part. Then you rinse your mouth with water. In this way, you can brush your teeth conveniently anytime, anywhere. People do not share the same toothpaste with their family or other people, so this tab toothpaste is more hygienic. 

Consumers responded quickly and positively to the solid toothpaste that can also be used for gargling. Since its debut on kakakomakers, the product has often sold out. It was introduced at exhibitions in Vietnam and Thailand last year, and Mr. Ho is considering making a contract with local buyers in those countries. ToothTab was selected for the 2018 Hi-Seoul Good Products Award sponsored by the Seoul Business Agency. 

In the process of developing salTherapy as a promising and successful one-man company, Mr. Ho hopes to walk the path of honesty and devotion, just like his father. 

My father has engaged in food business for four decades. No doubt, safety is highly important in this business. To ensure safety, businesses should be honest. Products that have been made in an honest way will certainly appeal to consumers, although it may take time. 

My company uses safe ingredients and fresh ideas to provide healthy and convenient goods. If I follow the principle faithfully, I’m sure consumers will associate salTherapy with this positive image and my company will continue to grow.

salTherapy shows that a son can carry on his family business in a new and innovative way. The company’s solid toothpaste is bringing a significant change to the bamboo salt and toothpaste industries.