A plane full of pegs: Shark Tank success story HEGS to send Qantas plane filled with 17,000 bags of clothes pegs to the US

Hegs founder Scott Boocock on Shark Tank

A Qantas plane packed full of clothes pegs will leave South Australia at 7pm this evening, as homegrown manufacturer HEGS Australia continues to ride the wave of publicity that started with its appearance on Channel Ten’s Shark Tank in March.

Hegs founder Scott Boocock scored a $380,000 deal with Shark Tank judge Naomi Simson on March 8 for his washing pegs with hooks to help hang clothing.

On the same day, Hegs products were being presented at an international homewares show in Chicago. The Shark Tank connection helped pique the interest of buyers at the show and Hegs was named as one of the top 10 products at the exhibition.

One of the distributors at the show was so impressed they ordered 16 pallets of Hegs. But not wanting to wait the 45 days it would take to ship the products to the US, they are paying for Hegs to fill a Qantas plane and fly the products to them.

The flight was revealed at an event with the South Australian Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Kyam Maher, at Orana Disability Services in Adelaide this morning. Workers from Orana assemble all of Hegs’ products.

Next week Hegs will also send a shipping container full of 20,000 bags of Hegs to South Africa.

Speaking to SmartCompany this morning, Boocock says his Shark Tank deal has “absolutely” ramped up interest and international orders for his products, with customers in the US in particular “loving the Australian connection”.

He says the US distributors of Hegs love the fact the products are manufactured in Australia so much they have put an image of a kangaroo on the bags and even considered using the tagline “no worries”, which they associate with Australia.

“It’s an amazing little story … it’s an Aussie made product being sent on a Qantas plane to the rest of world,” Boocock says.

However, Americans call washing pegs ‘pins’ and Boocock says Hegs has essentially re-marketed the products to suit the market. It’s a similar story in South Africa, where the Shark Tank connection has sparked particular interest because of a local football team called the Sharks.

“When I started I thought I would be sending the one bag to every country, but that’s not the way,” Boocock says.

Hegs are now distributed to 12 countries in six continents, with another five countries to come on board in the next four weeks. Boocock previously told SmartCompany Hegs is expecting $1 million in revenue from its first year of sales and he is aiming to hit $4 million in international sales revenue by 2016.

Closer to home, Hegs are available in all Foodland, IGA and Foodworks supermarkets and from August 17, Woolworths customers will also be able to buy the products.