Three years later

Straight Furrow, June 27 2006

Three years after they launched the GrubIt at National Fieldays, Taupo friends Sebastian Bucher and Richard Malcolm are finally selling their product.

The GrubIt, which started as a science fair project, was on sale at Fieldays and by the second day the teenagers had sold about 60 of the thistle-grubbers for $42 a pop.

"We have had pretty good success," said Sebastian.

However, he said, it would be a while before they received any payback with the mould to make the GrubIts, setting them back about $12,000.

Both were extremely grateful for the support they had received from Active Plastics, who had produced the blades and plastic component of the GrubIts and Taupo saddler Bob Taylor, who has made the straps.

Grant Helps Taupo Boys Market their Invention

Taupo Times, Thursday August 11 2005

Young Taupo entrepeneurs Richard Malcolm and Sebastian Bucher have had a boost with a $20,000 enterprise development grant from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

The grant will match dollar for dollar what the boys put into the marketing and development of their thistle grubber invention - the GrubIt.

The GrubIt is strapped to the foot with a blade attached and is used to grub thistles and flatweeds on foot of frm a motorbike or ride-on mower and is ideal for lifestyle blocks, farmers and gardeners.

Now year 10 students at Taupo-nui-a-Tia College, the boys first came up with the idea of the GrubIt for a science fair project while they were year 8 students at Taupo Intermediate School.

Sebastian and Richard were inspired to invent the GrubIt because they wanted to make grubbing thistles easier and more fun.

They say that at the time, they had no idea the GrubIt would attract so much interest.

It is now under development patent and continues to generate interest in the farming community and media, as they found out at the Fieldays this year.

"We had lots of recognition [from farmers]," says Richard.
Sebastian says they were "pretty stoked" to get the NZTE grant.

They applied for it with assistance from marketing consultant Rosanne Jollands and Rod Ashcroft from Smartbusiness.

Richard and Sebastian have a lot of family support and have been busy making prototypes and refining the design, with particular focus on improving the strapping and how it sits on the foot.

"We have to go trial it, Dad’s the tester," says Sebastian.

As they are still busy with the GrubIt, the boys do not have any other inventions in the pipeline at the moment. They say working on the GrubIt is fun and they fit it around school and other commitments on the weekends and after school.

They have also been learning lots of different things.

"It’s pretty interesting," says Richard.

Sebastian says they are always picking up new things, such as learning about marketing, paperwork and company structure.

The boys have set up a company and the website www.grubit.co.nz, and hope to have GrubIts for sale in the next few months.

"We’re looking at getting it out there, then getting it out to the people we know are interested," says Richard.

Thistle Grubber Wins Award

Straight Furrow, July 7 2004

Richard Malcolm and Sebastian Bucher just thought they would enter their Thistle Grubber in the school science fair , but it has gone a bit further than that.

The boys were the only entrants in this year’s Fieldays Innovations Centre inaugaral category for under-21 inventors and won a merit award for their efforts.

The 13-year-old Taupo-nui-a-Tia College students invented the device, which straps to a gumboot to make getting rid of thistles an easier task.

"We made it for a science fair and a lot of people said it was a good idea so we thought we would try it at the fieldays," Richard says.

They were second at the science fair while at intermediate school, and then were nominated for the Taupo Times District Youth Awards.

The pair were applauded for their enterprise and effort at the awards - so much so that organisers gave them a special award.

Linda Malcolm, Richard’s mother, says the teens have received plenty of attention from the media, making it on television news and in the New Zealand Herald.

"We thought we would try the fieldays for market research and for feedback. The response has been overwhelming and several people have told us what a good idea it is," say the pair.

"The next step is to find whether the product is commercially viable. We are governed by manufacturing costs and we would have to look into that."

Boys Plan to Market their Grubber

Taupo Times, Friday September 5, 2003

Finding a new way to grub thistles has not only won Taupo Intermediate School’s Richard Malcolm and Sebastian Bucher $650, but it has given them the pleasure of beating hundreds of college students at the Bay of Plenty Science Fair.

The pair finished second overall in the competition for their experiment ’Thistle Dismissal’. They also won a number of other awards, including the intermediate technology section and the environmental award. The design they came up with makes life easy for those who have the arduous task of cutting thistles. Convenience is the name of the game and they have made the design transferable, so it fits easily on the heel of most people’s shoes.

What about the cost? These two boys have covered everything. It costs exactly $48.50 to manufacture the grubber, but it would be a lot cheaper if it were to be manufactured in bulk.

Going into business is the plan from here for the young students, who have got the patent for the idea they have been trying to promote to companies.

"We are going to use the prize money to help market the product," says Richard. "We’ve sent some letters to companies, and hopefully we will hear back from them soon."

The boys spent about 50 solid days working on the experiment and had their fair share of problems in trying to work out a design.

"There was an original design which we tried to promote, but we were told by some companies that it was useless," says Sebastian. "So we kept trying and came up with the current one, which we are happy with."

Both boys come from a farming background and wanted to find an easier way to grub thistles. Clearly the boys had a lot of fun with the whole experiment and say they did most of the work themselves.