Olin Penna admits it was an interesting way to launch his newly incorporated business, Luther Lather Shaving Creamery, in September 2016 on the boardwalk in Charlottetown waiting for a cruise ship to dock.
“It’s kind of bizarre. You get off a cruise ship and there’s a guy in a kiosk on the boardwalk selling shaving cream. It’s not like I’m selling beer or lemonade, I’m selling shaving cream,” said Penna, who is originally from Terrace Bay, Ont.
That day he hoped to sell about 200 jars of the homemade shaving cream.
“I thought it would be an easier sell. And it wasn’t. My first couple of days I sold maybe one (jar) all day.”
Penna, 35, has come a long way from those days trying to sell the product at the boardwalk.
On Oct. 1 at Farm Day in Charlottetown, Penna was once again set up in a kiosk. He brought six cases (12 jars of shaving cream per case) and nearly sold out in four hours. Jars of shaving cream were selling for $35 and brushes for $25. Three jars were left by the end of the day.
“I was terrified. I thought we were going to run out,” he said.
Penna got the idea to start making shaving cream in 2011 in Calgary. As a birthday present, his girlfriend (now wife Sarah) enrolled him in a soap making class to help take his mind off of work.
“It was me and like 35 women. (I’m) the only guy,” he said, with a laugh, adding that he wondered what his hockey buddies would think if they knew he was taking the class.
But the experience also got Penna thinking about other applications, such as “a manly version of cosmetics” that led to experimentations making shaving cream.
He said it took a couple of years to refine the product.
Now, Penna makes and ships the shaving cream out of his Charlottetown home. The shaving cream is made from coconut oil, natural soap, honey and tallow.
He said the product is a thinner paste with natural foaming agents compared to store bought shaving cream. As well, the product does not have to be rinsed off but instead acts as a moisturizer if left on someone’s face.
The shaving cream has different scents, such as new batch that contains charcoal to absorb dirt and toxins from the skin’s pores (a tribute to the chimney sweep masters of the 1800s). Other scents include campfire tobacco, thieves oil (cinnamon, nutmeg and clove) and scotch pine for the winter. Scents offered in the summer included rosebud and bay laurel.
Penna has customers across Canada as well as in the U.S., U.K. and Australia. He sells and advertises online (through Facebook, Instagram and Etsy) but is also moving the product as a result of “word of mouth.” He said his customers include young adults, parents and grandparents as well as hipsters and anyone who needs to shave every day for work.
Penna said he enjoys the face-to-face interaction with customers, and is busy preparing for the busy Christmas market season in the Maritimes.
To help out with the season, Penna brings in his father Doug from Northern Ontario.
For Penna, it’s fun to see Doug – a career forester and lumberjack from Northern Ontario – interacting with customers at the markets.
“So, to see him in a sales role, it’s pretty cool,” he said.
Penna said he is always thinking of ways to improve and expand the business as well as incorporate the Island story into his products.
For example, to help tourists bring his product on a flight, he sells shaving cream in three-ounce portions inside of P.E.I. bar clams wrapped in Saran wrap (for $12 each). Penna is also looking at making brushes out of horsehair from participants in the Gold Cup and Saucer Race.
Penna has a day job, but he also took out a $10,000 bank loan on P.E.I. to get the business going.
“The moment when you stop sleeping at night because you’re thinking about paying off the loan the next month, that’s what’s exciting is you have skin in the game because you have confidence in yourself,” he said.
Penna doesn’t take any income from the shaving cream business. Instead, any money from the business is reinvested.
Reinvesting back into the business will help Penna realize a dream to take the business into a retail space in downtown Charlottetown one day.
He envisions in a unique garage-type atmosphere with a glass counter (similar to a bakery) that would also serve as a hang out for men. Hockey sticks from famous Islanders and boats would be on display to tell P.E.I.’s story and give customers an experience to remember, he explained.
And what about the company’s name Luther Lather? Penna said it doesn’t have any deep meaning. It’s just one of those nicknames that hockey teammates in Calgary coined in the locker room.
“You know, Luther Lather down here in the corner making shaving cream in his basement,” Penna said.
Twitter.com/terry_mcn
