The SunSaver Story

SunSaver was created by Steven and Callum in the beautiful beach town of Mangawhai where they both grew up. Like most young kiwis they’ve spent time backpacking overseas and have both felt the struggle of keeping their mobile devices charged while travelling. Typical power banks are of no use because, with poor memories and full schedules, Callum and Steven always forgot to charge them.

In mid-2017, while visiting a friend in Papua New Guinea, Callum happened to come across an innovative new type of power bank, with a solar panel, while browsing online, and thought this was a great concept. To test it out, he bought 10 units and his friend arranged for them to be sent to the village of Maprik, in Papua New Guinea’s East Sepik region, where they sold quickly and proved popular.

Given its success in Papua New Guinea, Callum believed the concept had great potential here in New Zealand, and as Steven had just left his job as a Chef to escape ‘hospitality hours’, the two kiwi lads formed their business partnership. Steven and Callum knew that the innovative concept needed a unique brand, so after endless hours of brainstorming, the SunSaver name and logo was born at the end of 2017.

The initial product that was tested in Papua New Guinea didn’t meet their strict quality requirements, and the next challenge was finding one that did. Being a small start-up with extremely limited resources, the expensive business of designing their own bespoke product was not an option, so instead SunSaver looked for an exceptional existing product to introduce in the New Zealand market, and in early 2018 the first shipment of SunSaver Classic power-banks arrived.

Like most stories of outsource manufacturing in China there were a few initial difficulties. But after investing in a trip to Shenzhen to see the factories for themselves, Callum and Steven are confident they have found themselves a long-term manufacturing partner.

Now, after a year in the market, SunSaver has a product range offering two different solar power banks and a folding solar charger. Moving forward, SunSaver will soon start undertaking their very own product development, so they can incorporate real market feedback into the product design process and create new products better tailored to their customer’s needs.