Rachel Cummins, left, husband Josh Cummins, seated, and business partner Lee Hoppen
(Picture: Let’s Sanitise)Rachel Cummins and business partner Lee Hoppen had a thriving photo business, Megabooth, that was supplying 5000 corporate events and parties each year, including the Brit Awards and for guests including Prince Charles. Everything changed when lockdown hit in March 2020 and events were cancelled. The founders — and Rachel’s husband Josh, whose own recruitment firm had also been struck hard by Covid — had to find a Plan B.
“Our Megabooth business disappeared overnight. All our events were cancelled and the three of us, and our team of seven, were all working from home trying to work out what to do in those early months while the pandemic took hold of the UK.
“We lent our warehouse to a charity delivering toiletries to NHS workers, and some of our staff helped with packing that all up. But we had the warehouse to pay for and six vans and our staff, who have been with us for years and are our best friends. We had to do something to save their jobs — we had to pivot into a new industry.
“After a Zoom meeting or two, we dreamt up the idea of supplying sanitiser stations to help businesses reopen safely. We’d worked with a metal factory across the road from us in Hainault — they’d built lots of custom products for our photo booth sets, like cameras that swing over your head for the Brit Awards and infinity rooms. The guys there said they could build some sanitiser stations for us. That was the start of Let’s Sanitise.
“We got on the phone and emailed every events person and every brand we had ever been in contact with, plus lots that we hadn’t. I spent hours and hours on LinkedIn, messaging anyone I could: I found an IT consultant who’d worked for Prezzo, emailed him, he gave me a contact, and the next day we had an order for 800 units for their restaurants. We sent a mailer to The Restaurant Group, who put in a big order for their Wagamama branches. It just took off.
“We soon realised that the gel we were using was gloopy and stunk of vodka, so thought we’d try to improve it. We contacted some manufacturers and developed a few scents to make a luxury sanitiser. Now we have ten scents, from sandalwood to aloe vera, and also sell ‘white label’ sanitisers of any scent people request: orders have included fresh linen and fig.
“The first week of our launch, I sent some sanitisers to Mrs Hinch [the cleaning influencer with four million Instagram followers]. I wrote her a handwritten letter, and the next morning I had a notification on my phone that she’d tagged us. It all went crazy after that: we had 10,000 new followers in 24 hours and 3000 orders. She kicked everything off for us. Now our products are sold on Ocado, Amazon, House of Fraser, Melia hotels and Saga Cruises. Turnover hit £1.7 million in our first year.
“We donate a bottle for every bottle of sanitiser bought. We’ve given away 25,000 so far to the NHS, care homes and homeless shelters. A lot of people made a lot of money out of the pandemic but we were just trying to save our company and our staff, so we try to give a bit back.
“We’re still running Megabooths — just about. Business picked up ahead of Christmas, then 80 events were cancelled last-minute [due to Omicron]. Hopefully the events will come back soon. Our February orders are good.
“But in the meantime, our pivot is working out! We’ve launched hand soaps and moisturisers now too, we want to keep people excited about our brand. To anyone else facing a potentially big shift in their business, I’d just say that sometimes the answers are closer to home than you may think. It’s not what you know but who you know that can help you move on to pastures new.”
