Hungarians made a fortune with period panties – PHOTOS
Dóra Molnár and Ádám Tasnádi’s joint invention made the two Hungarian startup owners millionaires. They created a trademark that conquered Europe and is popular in Africa and America. They began with two million forints (EUR 5,000) but earned almost 400 million HUF (EUR 1 million) in only three years. And what was the reason? A period accident of Dóra Molnár. Read more about their story below!
Flourishing business because of an accident
According to index.hu, Ms Molnár created the new product in the 2017 winter after gaining some horrible experiences during a period accident. “It came earlier than I expected. My underwear became bloody, and I thought how useful it would be if I had panties able to cope with menstruation just like the pantyliners” – she told the Hungarian media outlet.
She needed something helpful even when her period comes unexpectedly.
A woman always thinks about avoiding becoming soaked, she added. Therefore, they created the ‘this is Redy’ trademark with Ádám Tasnádi. They tested it for 1.5 years and entered the market in May 2019. The testing process was long since women could use the product only during their period. She is not ashamed of her invention. Instead, she says it is a brave product, and there are no taboos. For example, they did not hire professional, skinny models in their marketing campaign. Furthermore, they did not retouch the hand hair because they wanted to send a message that the product belongs to everyone.
Hundreds of millions of HUF income
Finally, they made 300 period panties and gave three months to see the market’s reaction. However, they did not have to worry for long: they sold everything in one month while demand skyrocketed. As a result, for example, their website froze many times because of the high number of visitors. So it happened that they ran out of panties.
The coronavirus epidemic did not break the business’s momentum.
On the contrary, since everybody remained at home, more women tried out their products in the safety of their houses. The success was self-evident: the income reached HUF 100 million (EUR 250 thousand) in 2020 and 380 million (EUR 950 thousand) by 2021.
“We were profitable each year but did not take out a penny. We reinvest everything, think long-term and see a lot of directions to develop.
From fall, a drugstore chain will sell our product along with foreign distributors”,
co-founder and co-owner Ádám Tasnádi said.
They want to conquer the international market
They won a lot of awards. For example, they are on Forbes’ list of 100 self-made Hungarians and the list of 30 successful Hungarians under 30. They got the Greengage sustainability award, and Dóra Molnár is on the international Vestbee top 25 women entrepreneurs in Hungary.
They had two great goals at the beginning.
Firstly, creating an educative trademark and breaking taboos regarding women’s intimate hygiene. Secondly, to enter the international market and create a Hungarian company that can become profitable globally. In 2022 Q1, 20 percent of their income was of export.
Their period panty made of velvet is unique on the market.
It is popular in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, and France.
Furthermore, they regularly receive orders from Canada, the USA, and Africa. Their product not only offers new solutions but is also environmentally friendly and zero-waste.
Based on their calculations, their product substitutes 300 tampons and pantyliners per woman per year. The products they sold saved the globe from 3 million tampons and tonnes of persistent waste. Dóra Molnár added that the degradation time of such waste is more than 500 years.
The duo has sold 55 thousand period panties so far.
Source: index.hu