The ex-MK Dons record signing taking the beauty industry by storm

From the football pitch to the beauty industry, Kieran Agard’s life has taken a different course since leaving MK Dons.

Once the club’s record signing after he joined from Bristol City in 2016, Agard went on to be one of the club’s most successful scorers, bagging 50 goals in 166 appearances across five seasons.

During his time at Ashton Gate, he bent the ear of Scott Golbourne - who would go on to play 27 times for Dons on loan - regarding his property business outside of football, preparing for life after the game. Peaking Agard’s interest, he began to consider his own career away from the pitch.

Taking a keen interest in natural health and beauty products initially for personal use, Agard discovered batana oil from Honduras and began selling it initially on eBay during lockdown, but his interest and entrepreneurial instinct kicked in.

Having made some profit from selling investment properties he owned in Salford, Agard found a source to import the hard-to-find oils, but admitted after parting with a lot of money, he faced a nervous wait the first time he took the plunge.

“I found a supplier, but you never know,” he said on the Talking Transitions podcast. “I was sending a few thousand pounds, and then just hoping it was not a dead end. I felt like I was dealing with the mafia! I was using translators on my phone, I parted with the money and then I had to wait two or three weeks.

“Fortunately, all these boxes showed up, the guy came through. From there, it was about doing even more research, working out what we can do. We got labels designed, to properly try and make a proper brand out of it.

“At first, we just thought about selling the oil. But we started a Shopify store in lockdown, and from day one we had sales.”

From there, his brand Batanaful was born. Agard sank more of his time away from football into researching products he could make with the oil, finding more and more success along the way.

He continued: “At the start, it was just the pure oil, nothing added to it. I looked into other beauty brands which came from nowhere to look for manufacturers and chemists to try and combine this oil with other products. I had a lot of nos or wanting to use harsh chemicals I didn't want. It took a lot of work, nearly three years, for them to come out how we wanted.

“In the last six months it has really taken off. It is unconventional, coming from football to the beauty industry but after I left Doncaster at the end of last season and cracked on with the business. It has been going really well.”