29. MoveActive
Melissa Pain’s quest to find “fun, functional” grip socks to wear when doing Pilates created MoveActive. See their Smart50 rank.
Revenue: $6.5 million
Growth: 52%
Founder: Melissa Pain
Head office: Brunswick, VIC
Year founded: 2009
Employees: 24
Industry: Retail
Website: moveactive.com.au
How MoveActive started
Melissa Pain’s quest to find “fun, functional” grip socks to wear when doing Pilates yielded only a handful of brands in three basic colours. She also found herself disappointed in their quality and design. Fellow female fitness enthusiasts were similarly let-down, so in 2009 Pain founded MoveActive “with nothing but a laptop and my basement for storage”. The response to her first patterned grip sock was so positive she was soon dealing with stockists begging for a variety of options.
Growth
For the first five years of MoveActive, Pain balanced the business with raising two small children. Once her kids were in school, however, she saw the potential of scaling up. The company is now experiencing what Pain calls rapid growth, with a regular intake of new customers alongside a loyal base of long-time buyers. The past year saw 2,555 new wholesale orders – a 200% increase to the year prior – and operations expanded to over 50 countries.
Where to next
MoveActive is experiencing 50% annual growth, and Pain says one of her primary goals is continuing that rise in revenue. Strengthening the company’s leading position in Australia and New Zealand, targeting 130% growth, while establishing a strong presence in the US is key to this. Pain says that the company will double its sales with 180% growth by expanding retail operations and global ad spend. There are also plans to launch new products and broaden the company’s studio fitouts.
