Saad Abdelaziz is the entrepreneur behind the company Wisalsson AB, which with its new packaging of chewing gum opens up new business models while reducing littering and thus clean-up costs for society.
Work on the business idea for the new chewing gum packaging has been going on for over a year, with business support from Almi Företagspartner. Since its inception, Saad has conducted interviews with potential customers and retailers, established contact with producers and developed a working prototype.
Throwing chewing gum into the environment is a major problem, as it takes 20-25 years to decompose. In addition, cleaning up chewing gum costs society several million SEK every year. With Wisalsson's new packaging, Saad hopes to reduce the environmental impact as well as the cost of clean-up for municipalities.
I'm driven to help the chewing gum industry reduce its environmental impact while making smarter use of tax dollars. Combining this with building a sustainable international company is very exciting," says Saad.
In the spring, the company is working to secure initial funding to enable production and further marketing. Currently, there are contacts with a couple of investors and dialogues with other financing possibilities. In parallel with the financing work, Saad is participating in the eXpress programme to further develop its business idea and take the next step towards a sustainable company.
I hope that participation in the programme will provide insights into business development and create a clearer path forward. Both in broad strokes but also in details such as tone of voice in marketing, Saad says.
So far, two workshops have been held in the programme and together with the other participants Saad has worked on the design process, market & customer analysis and identifying the entrepreneur's inner drives.
I particularly liked the IKIGAI model. It allowed me to put my own and the company's values into concrete terms. This work will be an important compass in the further development of Wisalsson, concludes Saad.
