Peter Russell, founder, inventor and managing director of Reterniti.
Peter Russell, founder of Reterniti, talks to Tom Raynel about the business of post-cremation, and how he plans to take the company global.
Every Monday, we interview a small-business owner. This is now a regular feature of NZME’s editorial campaign On The Up, showcasing uplifting stories of success, inspiration and possibilities.
What is Reterniti?
Reterniti is a global innovation solving the age-old question of what to do with a loved one’s ashes after cremation.
At Reterniti, we convert your loved one’s ashes into a tasteful, discreet stone, known as a cremation stone. Available for both people and pets, and offered in either full-sized Reterniti Stones or smaller pebbles, each one is intended to be a tactile connection to your loved one.
What inspired you to start the business?
I came into this industry completely out of nowhere, I was actually previously in marketing with a few big companies. It was one of those things when you get to your mid-40s and 50s and figure that you better get cracking with your own thing.
The more as a marketer I looked into this industry, the more it screamed opportunity. No one gets away from death, but consumer behaviour is changing really fast. We’re all getting cremated, roughly 75% of us are. The bigger funeral firms are heavily geared towards putting people in the ground, but people don’t want that any more.
The problem with ashes though is that no one knows what to do with them afterwards, especially when multiple people want a share. I was a recipient of a grant from Callaghan Innovation to develop handling ashes and compression of ashes, and their materials team loved it. The more we started developing it, the more it just made sense.
How are the stones made, and why this form-factor?
We looked at solidification, so using heat and pressure like Mother Nature does to create them. But the machinery required for that stuff to do it properly costs about US$600,000 ($1 million), which is a hell of a lot for something with low production capability.
With Callaghan we found that avenue was limited, and so now we’re using a patented methodology with binders to create the stones. It’s taken four solid years to get it right, and we’re delighted with it.
As for the design, someone once said to me that New Zealand was the Scandinavia of the Pacific. We have quite a lovely, restrained style down here, and it really stuck in my head. I asked myself what the Scandinavians would do, and I figured it would be restrained and discreet, but still real. We actually did focus groups for shapes and we found this ellipsoid shape was the one that connected most.
There’s a lot of stigma around death and what to do after you die; what are your thoughts on it?
We’ve found that post-Covid normalised talking, unfortunately, about death. There was a lot of destigmatisation around death because we were talking facts and figures every other day, and people started talking more about it. I guess it made people more receptive to something like this.
I’m not a particularly spiritual person, but I think one of mankind’s greatest fears is to be completely forgotten, to think they haven’t left a mark on the world. That led us back to our reason for being, which is to return for eternity.
Do you have plans to expand overseas?
Our PledgeMe campaign from last year was all about growing in Australia. We’re more than capable, and we have the space to burn. We primarily went to people who had already purchased from us, who clearly believed in us, and that got it moving faster than we thought it would.
After Australia, we’d like to be in the United States by 2027. Ideally it would have been this year, but with everything going on internationally it’s not the right timing. Australia is definitely a stepping stone, because we need to quadruple at least what we are doing here. That will form either a generator to allow us to go to the States, or it gives investors confidence.
This is a New Zealand innovation that really must grow global legs.
What would be your advice to a budding entrepreneur wanting to start a business?
Stop thinking New Zealand, stop thinking Australasia, think globally. That’s where true success is. Most Kiwis tend to look inwards and about as far as Australia, but your idea has to be global. You’ve got to grow the nuts to do something about it.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.