From The Courier, Nov 2020
Erik Smyth is not happy with a revenue growth of 12,000% and a workforce that has grown this year from two to 25.
The chief executive behind the Dew range of cleaning products sees no reason why his business in Dundee should ultimately not make hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
After discovering the cleaning characteristics of electrolysed water that can be 30 times the power of bleach while remaining safe to drink if accidentally swallowed, Mr Smyth founded Ecoanolytes in 2018.
He launched the customer-facing Dew brand of disinfectant and cleaning products after initially looking to sell the product to industry. It's been an immediate success.
Mr Smyth said: “Initially we worked with fish companies to look at using the product as part of food processing – we thought we could extend the shelf life and make it suitable for export to the US.
"The trials were positive, the length of existing supplier contracts proved to be a barrier.
"So we launched the consumer brand with an emphasis on our environmentally friendly ethos and the use of refills. The products just took off.
“People were buying online and leaving glowing reviews – by default it became our main focus.”
Mr Smyth claims that his cleaning products are less costly, more reliable and kinder to the skin compared to alcohol-based sanitisers that are sold on supermarket shelves.
Since then, a number of misting devices have been developed by the company to help sanitise classrooms, businesses and public spaces.
“It’s one step to make sure people’s hands and surfaces are clean but the virus is in the air, people breathe it in" said Mr Smyth.
“The active ingredient in our products is produced naturally by our bodies and poses no danger if breathed in or inadvertently consumed. We have some white label agreements with other companies so we can get the technology out to as wide an audience as we can.
“Businesses now understand they must accept ongoing responsibility for infection control and this is a way they can reduce costs without reducing the effectiveness.”
St Andrews University, SPAR, Abertay University, Parks of Hamilton, and Moffat and Williamson bus companies have become customers.
This month, with new equipment more than trebling production from 400 to 1,400 litres an hour, DEW Products moved into new premises at West Gourdie Industrial Estate in Dundee.
Mr. Smyth said: “I think we are just scratching the surface at the moment – we know that within five years the company will be 100 times the size.
“We are working on several exciting projects including a US company that is looking at our products for airports.
“We are also working to help people back to places of worship with a company that makes walkway tunnels that decontaminate as they travel through them.
“And we’ve been supplying free products to some schools in Tayside and frontline workers.”
REFERENCE McLaren, R., 2020. Dundee Cleaning Products Firm Plans To Be 100 Times Current Size By 2025 - The Courier. [online] The Courier. Available at: