Both supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have agreed to stock social enterprise Thankyou company’s ‘life changing products’. Thankyou (of Thankyou Water) was created as a way to fund water and hygiene projects in developing nations through Thankyou Food, Thankyou Water and Thankyou Body Care.

The brand has recently launched body products, breakfast cereals and museli bars, on top of its water range and all proceeds go to providing at least one week of food, drinking water or hygiene training to someone in need.

The products are now set to hit both stores’ shelves in the coming months. Coles and Woolworths both reportedly made their decisions just hours after taking meetings with Thankyou, a process that Thankyou co-founder and MD Daniel Flynn thought would take a lot longer.

“Veterans of the retail industry advised us that, even if we were able to convince Coles of the considerable benefits of stocking our products, we’d be lucky to get a product approved before Christmas.

“I think it’s safe to say we were surprised to receive a call only five hours after the meeting finished,” he says.

“It’s a surreal feeling. We’ve spent over a year developing the range and working on campaign strategy. This whole exercise was a massive risk for us, and it really could have gone either way.”

Flynn says that the success of the campaign had exceeded expectations and that the social enterprise had been overwhelmed by the support of the public. The campaign included a stunt in which Thankyou flew two helicopters (donated by benefactors), each carrying a 10,000-square foot (30 by 30-metre) banner over both Coles’ Melbourne headquarters in Hawthorn and Woolworths’ Sydney headquarters in Bella Vista, with the messages asking both retailers to help change the world.

Thank you estimates over 13 million people were reached during the two-week campaign through social media, online traffic and traditional media, and thousands of posts, including many creative videos, were placed on both Coles and Woolworths’ Facebook walls from Thankyou fans. They also featured celebrity endorsements from Australian media personalities such as Chrissie Swan and Jules Lund.

“It’s been amazing to see thousands of Australians post on both Coles and Woolworths’ Facebook pages in support of the Thankyou range. We’ve been blown away by the level of support,” says Flynn. 

“We set a goal to reach 10,000 views of the campaign video by the end of the campaign and we hit that number within the first day. It’s now had over 70,000 views, which is just huge!“

Coles chief operating officer John Durkan says, “We are delighted to be adding the Thankyou range to our offering for customers. Not only will it raise funds for essential projects in developing countries, but they are also great products.

“We’ve listened to our customers, who told us they would support the Thankyou range if Coles stocked it. Now they’ll have the chance to do just that and make a difference with every product they buy.”