Justin Letschert sharing the story of Union-Swiss at the ECR Conference 2008

Casually dressed in a t-shirt, with hair at a length that wouldn't quite pass the principal's inspection (and did I hear someone say "earring"?), Justin Letschert is more likely to be mistaken for a soundman than the owner and CEO of a billion rand corporation. Billed in the last slot of the ECR conference's first day, Letschert was faced with the difficult task of attracting our waning attention. But as we sat back to listen to his story, punctuated by cutely simple slides, his charisma and engaging nature shone through and it became easy to understand how it came to pass that he and his brother, David, had turned an ailing Union-Swiss into the award-winning company it is today - with just one product. Having acquired the company in 2000, Letschert explained how they culled 100 of the 120 products on day one, with the other 19 falling by the wayside over the following month. And so it was through their global push of their one remaining product, Bio-Oil, that Union-Swiss retail sales grew from R3 million in 2000 to R1 billion in 2008 - earning them the title of Emerging Entrepreneur at the 2008 South African chapter of Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Awards Programme. "It's about taking that first step and learning as you go," said Letschert. And the secret to their success? "Our greatest strength is that we're South African, and South Africans have tenacity," Letschert concluded.

Shan Radcliffe, Retail editor retailnews@bizcommunity.com Responses to this column welcomed in our new online editor's column archive.