By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Bob Delaney built his reputation in St. Tammany Parish for 51 years as a successful real estate man.
Delaney bought houses, renovated houses, leased houses, built houses and definitely sold many houses.
So where did his newest endeavor—Bob’s Butt Wipes—come into the picture?
Growing up the son of Robert Delaney, who headed the St. Tammany Homebuilders Association several decades ago, the entrepreneurial spirit was always in the younger Delaney.
As a young adult, he headed to college seeing the future of the business world in computers, studying at LSU and USL to be a computer programmer.
“I was really good with computers when I was young,” he said. “It was back in the late 70s when I could program computers in 11 languages. I knew there was a big future in computers.”
But mid-way through college, Delaney changed gears and decided to follow his father in real estate since “I saw there was a lot of money to be made there.”
He began buying houses, renovating them, leasing them and also selling them. Over the next 25 years, he had tremendous success with Landmark Homes and then RJD Contractors, his current company. He built homes from Louisiana to Florida, and also renovated dozens of homes and sold them following Katrina.
But one day while near a construction site during the hot summer when he was sitting in his truck at lunch to make phone calls, he noticed something that caught his eye.
“I kept seeing the subs heading into the port-a-john with packs of baby wipes,” he said. “It got me thinking about a product that would be a better mousetrap since I realized there was a much bigger market for baby wipes than just for babies.”
Delaney began working on his product in 2001, researching everything about how to make the best wipe and the best packaging. The plan was short-circuited for a number of years by Hurricane Katrina, but in 2006, he got back to work. Almost seven years of testing and $1 million of investment capital later, he has now produced Bob’s Butt Wipes, BouDe’ for ladies, and Adventure Wipes for children.
“Most people don’t realize what a huge market there is for something like this,” Delaney said. “It’s much more than changing diapers for babies. And men probably want them more than anyone, especially those who work outside and use port-a-johns. That is a huge number of men.”
Delaney said that despite his years of success in the real estate business—and he has had a tremendous track record of success there—he always had another desire.
“I always wanted to invent a product that would hit every market out there,” he said. “I started seeing the flushable wipes show up in stores in 2006 and I knew I had something that was getting popular.”
But as in developing any new product, and getting it to the public, the challenge is great since there are thousands of people trying to find “a better mousetrap,” as Delaney called it.
“The first part is to research and study the response,” he said. “We found that moms loved our product better than regular baby wipes, but as I said, men probably liked using it more than women.”
Delaney said he had to study every aspect of the product, trying different disinfectants in the wipes to find one that is bio-degradable and also the best way for the wipe to be folded to come out of the dispenser. And the holder for the wipes was a big challenge that took him all over the world to find the right plastic manufacturer. He said that he was forced to go to China due to price and availability of what he wanted, but he is now close to making a deal with an American manufacturer.
His product is made in a plastic dispenser that hangs on a regular toilet paper holder, or has little legs to stand on its own. Production finally started in August, 2013, and the product hit the market this past October. Walgreens was one of the first major stores to accept Bob’s Butt Wipes and his two other products, and he now has a contract for 70 more Walgreens stores in the Louisiana and Mississippi region. Many other area stores are slowly adding his product to their shelves.
“We just got going with this and it’s quite a process to get into all the big stores,” he said. “But I know we have something special and I think it will eventually be worldwide. I’ve gotten calls already from Africa, the North American Indian Tribe for all their casinos, Bass Pro Shop and more—it’s just getting started.”
His Adventure Wipes are his latest focus since he wants something young children want to use to clean their hands and face also. He has already added “Free Stickers and Tattoos” to the box and sees his giveaway as reminiscent of the old Cracker Jack box. He plans to give 10 percent of his proceeds to a charity that is still undecided, he said.
For more information on Delaney’s product, go to sterlingglobalproducts.com.