Big decisions for Long Island company

There is also a possibility of establishing facilities on both sides of the Atlantic.

The company, founded by Munro, manufactures and markets environmentally friendly, scent-free products ranging from creams, to cleansers, to water purification systems. The business owns buildings on Long Island and in Weymouth, and until recently has focused its marketing efforts largely in the Maritimes.

A few weeks ago, company chief executive officer Darrell Challoner spent a week in Scotland where he left a number of irons in the fire–and those irons are heating up.

During his seven days in Scotland, he met with distributors, major investors and research people and a number expressed interest in alliances with Neptune’s Balance. “They’re the right products at the right time, and the people we talked to there see the potential to market them worldwide,” said Challoner.

The Scottish connections were arranged by Ian Russell, a Scot who moved to Digby County in 2004 after falling in love with Nova Scotia. Russell has been forging ties between his adopted homeland and his birthplace ever since his arrival, and is now organizing an autumn delegation to Scotland during that country’s ‘Nova Scotia Week.’

One of the meetings Russell arranged for Challoner was with individuals in Stirling University’s aquaculture department.

The university is a world leader in aquaculture research, says Challoner. “They’re interested in setting up a joint venture to recreate some of the experiments we’ve conducted. Their certification will put us on the world stage.”

Challoner says Neptune’s Balance water purification products to be released later this year will have huge implications for the aquaculture industry.

On this side the Atlantic, experiments on trout and salmon in water treated with the Neptune’s Balance product have shown controlled PH levels, an increased growth rate of the fish, less food required to achieve the growth rate, and healthier fish.

Challoner says the products can also help communities that have had recurring water quality problems.

For Challoner, who has spent the last year knocking on retailers’ doors and staging in-store demos to convince them about Neptune’s Balance products, the trip to Scotland revealed to him how business could—and should—be done. “Our cleaning products are now in 30 Canadian Tire stores and we have our creams in 24 pharmacies in the Maritimes. But this has happened because I’ve called on every one of those accounts. I’ve put 165,000 kilometres on my car in a little over a year.” “In Scotland, it was simply amazing what we accomplished in just seven days,” he said.

Challoner said Neptune’s Balance could benefit from a huge advertising campaign in North America, but such initiatives cost big bucks. That means the company needs investors.

While in Scotland, he met with individuals seeking investment opportunities and there was significant interest, but there were also strings attached. “They want to distribute the products. They also want to manufacture them—and they want to do the manufacturing in Scotland.”

Neptune’s Balance is considering the proposition.

The company is also putting together a new business plan it hopes will be attractive to investors who want to see new employment opportunities remain here in New Scotland.