Beating belly bloat started out as a personal mission for Aberdeen’s Gemma Stuart who took a deep dive into the latest microbiome and gut studies at University of Michigan to come up with her own remedy.
At one point, doctors pregnancy-tested her three times in a week to try to explain her distended stomach.
And there were no end of congratulations from unwitting friends and colleagues, who also read her extreme bloating as a baby bump.
Now Gemma, 41, has developed Gut Wealth, a bacteria-based digestive health supplement which she is rolling out to customers around the UK and Ireland.
IBS is thought to affect one in 10 people worldwide and Gemma is eyeing the international market as she works to scale up the business.
Last week, Gemma won a £100,000 prize after pitching at the Scottish EDGE awards.
The former Oldmachar Academy pupil wants to use the cash to help grow the business with more retail-ready packaging and has an eye on markets in Europe and the US.
Symptoms started in late teens
Irritable gut symptoms started affecting Gemma when she was in her late teens and left home to study business at Stirling University.
“I’ve had an IBS diagnosis for about 10 years,” she says. “I was suffering really badly prior to the pandemic. It was embarrassing.
“I was feeling so much discomfort and I couldn’t understand why because I was following the doctor’s advice.”
Gemma took things into her own hands, studying IBS management at the University of Michigan.
“I wanted to get my own gut health under control,” she explains. “Through that process I started having these lightbulb moments about biotics and beneficial bacteria.
“I was amazed that I had done all this research before, but all of this information wasn’t available to me.
“I would say a lot of modern information that’s available out there around scientific studies hasn’t quite filtered to every single GP across the wonderful NHS.”
Populate gut with good bacteria
Gemma realised many of the ingredients she needed weren’t available in the UK, so she created her own product.
She developed a citrus-flavoured liquid sachet designed to populate the gut with good bacteria.
“The hero ingredient is a beneficial bacteria,” adds Gemma. “There are clinical studies on that bacteria and what it does is improve the gut function and the gut lining.
“There are lots of gut products on the market and a lot of them have beneficial bacteria but ours is the only one that has this particular bacteria.
“It calms digestive upset and improves bio-regularity. This means less embarrassment around the urgency of needing the toilet and painful bloating.”
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, says Gemma, and Gut Wealth has turned over £200,000 so far.
Despite her background in financial services, Gemma says navigating the start-up world has been a “huge learning curve”.
Winning the government-backed Pathways award first time round is considered a feat.
“It’s the first time I’ve had any money into the business that’s not been bootstrapped,” she adds.
“So, it’s going to make a significant difference for me and my customers.
“Now I can afford to take somebody on full-time to support the growth of the business.”
That means launching properly in Ireland and using this as a gateway into Europe.
“I envisage doing that toward the tail end of 2025 into 26. Then the next really big opportunity would be USA,” she says.
“But as much as I have got these massive, grand scale plans you have to get the basics and the foundations rights.”
Conversation